User blog comment:Hidden Scorpius XI/RWBY Manga. Chapter 3/@comment-26018514-20160204155402

"How does the process prevent the Grimm from degenerating immediately?"

I don't believe it does, the real question is in how long the process takes, because the way it sounds is that the violent actions it is free to take in this form(with greater ability to destroy) bypass the degeneration... though that begs the question of how the armor learns to use a sword, as we have seen no predilection in other Grimm for tool use, you would think it would be attempting to destroy the sword/environment as much as actually using it.