People have a lot of different ideas of what "restoration" entails as well as the differences between "conservation" and "restoration".
My thinking is to do as little as possible when possible and not to do anything that is not reversible. In my field of collecting (keris) we are talking about a living tradition and i tend to try to follow the traditions around this as maintained by the culture of origin. Keris have been and are still routinely cleaned and restrained in places like Jawa in order to show the blade in it's best light. And the fascination that many Western collectors have about collecting and maintaining antique dress are not such a consideration within the originating keris culture where sheaths and hilts are continually updated as old dress falls into disrepair. Silver and gold aspects are meant to be kept shiny, so tarnished old silver fittings is not seen as adding any value to your old keris. Broken sheaths and hilts are seen as being disrespectful to the spirit of the blades, so if you are not able to repair broken dress it is generally accepted that new should be commissioned for your blade.
Again, while this may apply to other blades from around the world, this is something that is specific to keris. And no matter what the folks on Antique Roadshow would have to say about it, keris are not old coins or 17th century furnishings. Each genre of collectable antiques is going to have its own rules about this.
