Keris restoration

[Klaus Albrecht]

Hi all,

i've got a few month ago a old keris, red rusty und without hilt and sheath. hilt and sheath is no the problem, i can make itself. here i read the tipps for etching the blade, and the result is not so bad, but how can i make the contrast better? the blade is black, ok, now it would good to make the bright lines brighter. how.
I sharp and polish the blade, because the rust have makes a lot of holes in it, and i think, the blade is a good experiment thing.

and, perhaps anyone can help me to determine the blade, i haven't a lot of know to do this. the blade is here without the ganja.
thanks a lot for helping.
klaus

sorry, english is not my motherspoken, i hope you understand what i want to say.

[Marcokeris]

Klaus
IMO is better don't touch the blade. The blade seem to be an old betok

[A. G. Maisey]

Klaus, you can lighten the stain on a blade by rubbing it with the inside of the lime skin and frequent rinsing with water.

You can also simply remove the too dark stain with steel wool and sink cleaner, and start again.

What you cannot do is produce a high contrast finish from low contrast material.

I strongly suspect that even if your blade were to be stained by an expert, you would not achieve a high contrast finish.

[Klaus Albrecht]

Thanks a lot for your answers :)
the low contrast, is it a sign for an old blade?
next time I will etch the blade again, with the other method - lay into realgar bath. what are you mean, is it better than the method with the paste and drying in the sun?
best greetings
klaus

[kai]

Hello Klaus,

the low contrast, is it a sign for an old blade?
Many old blades have low-contrast pamor while all(?) modern blades from blacksmiths of the Madurese school offer very brightly contrasting pamor. Quite a few old blades have also bold pamor though...

next time I will etch the blade again, with the other method - lay into realgar bath. what are you mean, is it better than the method with the paste and drying in the sun?
I got better results from immersing the whole blade but this may be due to climatic reasons or from utilizing realgar rather than pure arsenic trioxide(?).

Regards,
Kai

[A. G. Maisey]

Klaus, buried somewhere in the discussions of the old Forum is a complete explanation of a very simple and easily controllable method to stain a blade.

There are a lot of different methods, and personally, for a quality job, I do not like the soak method. The paste on blade method is wasteful of material, too difficult to control, and again, in my opinion, just not a good method.

The best method I am not prepared to pass on, not because it is a deep secret but because it is too potentially dangerous, and really must be demonstrated for somebody to fully understand how to use it.

See if you can find the method already published, if you cannot, get back to me, and I'll give it to you.