GP, I'm very pleased that you have acquired a keris that brings you such a high degree of satisfaction, however, you have not acquired a keris pusaka.
The way in which finger print whorls are applied to both old & more recent keris is by the method that in Jawa we know as the "batik" method, it is called this because the blade, or an area of the blade, is covered in wax, the finger tips are pushed into the wax when it is still warm, this leaves a print in the wax, if necessary, these finger imprints are improved with a needle when the wax has hardened.
Once the finger prints or other design have been inscribed into the wax, the blade , or the localised area of the blade, is treated with acid, the finger print whorls that you can see are the result of acid etching.
After the pattern has been etched into the blade, the wax is removed with boiling water and the blade is cleaned and stained.
This topic of "batiking" a blade has probably been discussed previously on this forum, the practice is very well known to established collectors and students of the keris.
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