No Stephen, no problem with the name.
David, I didn`t say that there were non-typical characteristics, I said there were characteristics that made it difficult for me to identify as Javanese.
The overall look and proportion don`t click into a tangguh slot, the ada-ada is very thickly ridged, the material looks a bit porous but this might just be excessive use of acid in cleaning, the metuk---this will be found to be mechanically attached, not forged as one with the blade--- the metuk could possibly fit a couple of classifications, but it seems to combine characteristics from at least two different classifications, possibly three. It might be Javanese, but without it in my hand, I`m not prepared to say. Look, this is not a top level, court quality tombak:- its a nice old fairly middle of the road example. Tangguh was never intended to apply to every piece of wesi aji under heaven, and the further away you get from court standards, the more difficult it gets to fit any wesi aji into a tangguh slot. Tombak are much, much more difficult to classify than keris at any time, and when you get a few pics of something that might or might not be Javanese, its just too hard to be positive about anything. In the hand it may be possible to look at different angles, or examine the texture under a loupe, or gauge the weight, or feel the texture, but from photos I`m afraid its beyond me. Now, if I were to take a punt and say---yeah, OK , probably Javanese---the next question is---oh, its Javanese is it? How old? What tangguh?--- my answer---I don`t know---well how can you say its Javanese?
Actually, my gut feeling is that this tombak could be Balinese.
But don`t hold me to it---that is just a gut feeling, based on a photograph.
As far as staining goes, why not start with this tombak?
I personally think it would be a good thing to start with.
At least its got good clear pamor that you can be fairly confident will show up OK after staining. A lot of old blades, especially old junky ones just show grey and grey with low definition, and a beginner doesn`t know if he`s on the right track or not.
Give it a good scrub up with hot water and dishwash detergent, a light bath in pineapple juice,rinse off,dry, and go right to it, as long as you can get the arsenic, and that might be the hardest part.
One thing is certain:- you cannot do it any harm. If it turns out too dark, you just clean it off with bonami or some other powder sink cleaner--ajax maybe---and try again. In Jawa we use abu gosok---an ash used to polish pans--- and coconut husk, but ajax and steel wool works just as well. I`ve been playing around with cleaning and staining for about 45 years now, I`ve been taught several different methods and have developed a couple of my own. There is no magical secret attached to blade staining, its just patience and experience, and if you get it wrong, clean it off and try again.You definitely cannot do any damage to the blade if you tackle the job correctly.
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