I think fragrances and spirituality has been linked one another forever.
I believe most of us bought our keris second hand so we don't have control to what has been used in the past. In Indonesia, you need to ask that you strictly don't want any oil to be applied when you hand your keris to others, eg. for repair, staining etc, otherwise most of the time (at least from my experience) it will come back generously oiled (seen as good gesture?), often with foreign interesting scent. Basically a very thin film of oil (traditional way), wax, or other (easily) removable protective substance on blade surface is what we want but on bare/unfinished wood like maybe the fact with all inner part of warangka, oil will generally create problem both for the wood and the blade in one way or another; depending on what oil has been used, how severe the wood has been saturated, how many portion of the blade exposed/touching to the warangka, how often you check/maintain the blade, is it stained (or blued) or not, other triggering factor like humidity, lighting condition, etc. Bare metal may also rust if exposed to bare wood (or even air) for prolonged period. Newly made warangka may use wood that has not been dry enough and remain so for a long time and may later pick up moisture from the air. I think most of us has seen that rust problem leading to worn surface/edges on keris blade is more pronounced in the areas where its touching the warangka and its surrounding, perhaps not because the oil itself but due to other factor like the wood absorbing the oil and left the blade unprotected?, other chemical reaction?. Anyone has a more scientific explanation to this? A plastic wrap like what Alan mention is very popular for newly stained keris done by those on the trade, it is very effective method for prolonged storage, especially if it is not on display/you have large collection. Happy oiling everyone
