Piso Podang with a flexible blade
 

Recently got this one. It has a flexible blade and is still sharp.
I do not know is from Sumatra or Borneo.

With those fullers it looks like a couple swords I have with european trade blades, which on mine are also flexible.

Hi centurion:

It's hard to make out much detail with dark pictures and heavy patination. The blade could be quite old, but impossible to say from these pics and without cleaning the blade.

Ian

Judging from the last picture I can't recommend cleaning this sword. To get it clean you would be venturing into the territory of stock removal.

Good point Rick. The last few inches near the tip of the blade certainly seem to be heavily corroded, although the edges of the fullers show some underlying steel coming through the rust. Closer to the hilt, there is little pitting and there seems plenty of steel left to enable a clean. The fact that you could flex the blade and it sprang back (without cracking or breaking) suggests there probably is quite a bit of steel left to effect a reasonable clean.

I've found gentle abrasive blasting in a cabinet to be effective at removing old rust of this type. I use fine "Black Beauty" medium, an air pressure of about 60-70 psi, and short bursts from 6-8 inches to be effective, while the somewhat lower than usual air pressure allows the process to proceed fairly slowly. Mechanically removing the oxidation with abrasive paper puts more stress on the blade IMHO, and I have had thin blades crack under vigorous rubbing.

An alternative to cleaning would be to stabilize the rust with, say, tannic acid and leave the sword black.

Hope this helps.

Ian

Yes, the sword is quite bendable and bending is in the lower half. There is rust but I think is mostly on the surface, additional photos on a better light show that.

Before posting I already lightly cleaned the sword with a toothbrush, synthetic sewing machine oil and Pelikan rubber eraser (the blue part of the eraser).

The sword is for sure a trade steel, as there is no such steel in Sumatra.

Think I saw years ago in Jakarta History Museum similar sword with description "18-century Indian sword".

All the cleaning I do on rust is using WHITE VINEGAR. Soak the blade if you can in a piece of plastic pipe with one end plugged.
For results using white vinegar see here http://vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=24394
Stu

This toa from my collection http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=21189 was once similar heavy corroded. All cleaned only by hand. ;)

Regards,
Detlef

Thanks for the info. Is white vinegar 9% alcohol vinegar?
How long do you hold the treated item in the vinegar?

The white vinegar I use is the same as used for cooking and you buy it at your local Supermarket. To my knowledge it has no alcholic content.
You can either place the blade in a suitable trough to soak, or as I normally do, put in a suitable length of plastic pipe which is plugged at one end.
If you don't have a suitable trough or pipe, then just wet and rub the blade with a rag soaked with the vinegar.
Time needed will depend on how stubborn the rust is, but you will soon see progress.....it works quite quickly.
Stu