[A. G. Maisey]

Yeah, I reckon that muck that gets in around the gonjo would certainly have arsenic in it. Even in one of my nice clean shiny keris with a perfectly patinated surface I reckon you could dig something out from between the gonjo and the blade proper that would test for arsenic.

What I reckon you could not do would be to remove sufficient of anything from the surface of a properly maintained blade to get a positive on arsenic.

I could probably dig up Jerzy's results if they interest you. Any sort of luck I could probably put my hand right on them. That would allow you to assess the relevance or otherwise of occurrence of natural arsenic in the material.

Again---looking forward to seeing it.

Wrote the above before reading the "simultaneous" post.

Reading how and where you took you samples, there is no doubt in my mind that you would find an arsenic positive.

However, from the standpoint of a museum professional, I really do believe that this presence of arsenic should be identified as a potential hazard---mind you, I do not believe for one second that it is, but anything that you can use to jack up your pitifully inadequate rates of pay should be treasured. Don`t fail to tell your union what you found. Make sure that when a workplace agreement is on the table that any handling of keris or other SE Asian edged weapons draws a hazchem subsidy---or something similar.
Professionals deserve decent pay for what they do, and if there is a hazard involved---be it ever so slight---it should be used appropriately.