No Ariel, no comments on the keris. I do not share the enthusiasm of others for keris from areas other than the areas of origin of the keris, as a consequence my knowledge of keris from these other areas is less than good. I do have opinions, but I learnt long ago that my opinions in respect of these keris only upset people, so I keep them to myself.
Re the use of pineapple juice & etc.
I started to clean and restore keris over 60 years ago, and at that time I was using methods described in 19th century books written by Europeans. These books talked about coconut water as the correct fluid to use.
Well, I couldn't get coconut water, so I thought about what other sort of natural juices I could use. I tried tomato juice, and apple juice and orange juice. I tried just about everything I could buy in can and everything I could squeeze out of a fruit.
I finally settled on pineapple juice as a cheap, easily obtainable juice that did an excellent job and did not harm the blade, no matter how long you left it in the juice.
As noted above , I stopped using pineapple juice when juice from fresh pineapples became unobtainable. This was caused by the sale of the Golden Circle company to the Heinz Group which did not waste any time in rationalising products and organisation to maximise returns. The Little Men in Grey Suits chalked up another victory. Incidentally, the new version of the juice is not only lousy to clean blades, it also tastes lousy.
But anyway, I used pineapple juice for a very long time, and I passed the recommendation for its use on to a lot of people. I guess other people also discovered its properties, independent of any advice from me.
However, about limes.
There is absolutely no substitute for freshly squeezed juice from Tahitian Limes mixed with warangan when it comes to staining a blade.
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