Dent removal on silver ferule (barung)

[JeffS]

Any advice on how to push or pull out this dent (circled)?

[Rick]

The stuff is pretty soft.
Try a short length of 3/8 inch diameter dowel and work it on the inside of the piece to return to round off the flat spot from the inside carefully. You'll probably want a flat surface to act as a kind of anvil. Round the edges of the dowel end so you don't break the joint where the ferrule flares.
You should be able to do this without using a hammer.

[Sajen]

Hello Jeff,

Yes, I am with Rick, a wooden dowel with a round tip will do the job, I've done it before.

Regards,
Detlef

[JeffS]

Thank you. Also looking for advice on how to remedy this issue. Same barung.

[JeffS]

With advice from a forum member, I heated the tip to blue hot and carefully tapped with a hammer on an anvil. The damage is still visible but much better, I think I will keep as is versus removing tip and reprofiling. Sorry for blurry photos.

[JeffS]

And here is the finished restore. Above is the Ebay gamble photo. I actually like the pommel with the broken bits, the breaks are very old and the original owner likely carried it as such. This is a huge barung 27.5" OAL with 19.5" blade. I believe it would be considered shandigan, with concave sides and short edge bevel, but the lines are not as distinct as other examples I've seen here.

[Ian]

Jeff,

Nice job on cleaning it up. I think you have an old one, maybe mid-19th C. The hilt seems to be of that era, and the narrow shandigan blade style would fit also (although a littler longer than usual for a 19th C piece). Very good catch!

[RobT]

JeffS,

Very good job indeed. I would love to hear about your methods.

Sincerely,
RobT

[JeffS]

JeffS,

Very good job indeed. I would love to hear about your methods.

Sincerely,
RobT
I started by removing the handle and ferule. This was done by clamping blade in padded vice and applying a heat gun to base of the blade until the resin softened enough to pull the handle off. It takes a couple minutes for the resin to soften. I then did an initial clean with 150 grit sandpaper and then followed with 220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1200 leaving the pits but getting enough polish to pick up a light pattern with a diluted vinegar dip. The tip was straightened, as described above, before the vinegar bath. I polished the ferule and straightened the dent as advised here. For the handle, I used boiled linseed oil going for a simple "user" matte finish. Much of the binding resin had been lost over the years so I needed to add new resin. For this I used some resin sticks (photo below) I recently picked up in North Kalamtan from a remote Dayak community. They appear to be hand rolled like a cigarette with wrapping material around the resin. I cut pieces and dropped into the handle recess and then heated the tang with a torch and plunged the hot tang into the recess. The resin quickly melted, I topped up with some more pieces, melted with heat gun, and tamped down with rounded tip of a toothbrush handle.

[RobT]

JeffS,

Excellent methods and result. I especially liked that you didn't go overboard with the sandpaper. You could probably get a cottage import industry going with those resin sticks.

Sincerely,
RobT