[QUOTE=ariel
Do you like patinated things showing age or shiny things, the way they left the workshop?
I think both are OK. Personally, I rather like the shiny brass on your Binangon. Very nice sword! enjoy it.[/QUOTE]
Flavio,
I agree with Ariel. I like the way your sword looks.
As far as shiny or patinated I try to understand the piece from the culture it came from and how they would keep their blades.
For instance it would be very wrong to keep a Javanese keris in old dress with heavy patination. IMHO the dress should be perfect and clean. Look like it was made yesterday and the blade also kept pristine and stained.
But this is an exception to my usual rule. I basically like warm, patinated old wood, or ivory, but I like the blades clear and clean. I believe most cultures kept their blades clean both from respect and preservation.
If there is repoussed or incised sliver, brass or bronze, I like to keep the patinaion in the crevices and just clean the surfce. This gives a nice depth to the metal, but if I overclean, it is easy to fix with "Liver of Sulphur."
I recently heavily cleaned an old Theyyam / temple sword. It is made of silver and had an overall dirty patination.
From the pictures of the current Thayyam in thier ritual trance dances, the silver always gleams. The sword I had was in a collection for many years and had acquired the overall dirty patination.
This felt very wrong.
Now it also gleams and seems happier. Can a sword feel????
I also try to communicate with the sword. I know this may sound strange, but I ask the sword to tell me how it wants to look. I may sit with it for hours in candle light meditation.
Most of the swords I acquire seem sadly neglected. And their spirits are sad. However after a bit of cleaning and some ren wax, a little smoke and they begin to brighten up.
While I am on this line of thought I also welcome them into my home and take them around and introduce them to my other pieces.
Metaphysically it gets a bit noisy at night when they are swapping stories!
