The "shell" used for keris hilts is the thick base section of giant clam. It is heavy, like stone, hard, white, dead cold in the hand. It is far heavier than ivory or bone or denatured antler.
To clean it depends on what is making it dirty. I usually start by rubbing with baby oil and work up from there to more volatile substances. You do need a bit of experience to understand what will help and what will hinder, but you've probably already got this from working on other weapons.
There have been thousands of words written in this forum on how to clean and stain keris blades. I don't know where all the threads are, but probably somebody who keeps notes will be able to help. Sorry, I don't keep any record or note of anything I just answer each matter as it arises.
Ariel, with keris we really don't talk in terms of "how old", we talk in terms of "classification", or "tangguh". Most people like to use the tangguh system as representative of age, and to a limited degree this can work, but the further back in time that we move from today, the less realistic is the estimate of age. I am not prepared to give an estimate of age on any of your keris, except to say that they are old. They are not "good keris", as has often been discussed here, but they are very solid examples that could form the basis of a serious collection.
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