We all have our own favourite method of looking after our keris, and obviously they work for us, or we wouldn't pass them on.
I live in a maritime climate. I am less than fifty meters from the edge of a salt water lake, and when we get a strong southerly breeze salt spray hits the front of my house.
I have a lot of keris and other weapons that I need to try my best to maintain in excellent condition. There are keris and other weapons that I have not looked at, nor oiled in years. Truly, years. I am not speaking figuratively.
After a blade is freshly stained I spray it, or paint it with WD40. I drench the blade, and allow it to dry off overnight. I then paint it with keris oil that I make myself from about 45% cendana, 5% kenanga, and 50% medicinal parafin. I slip the wet blade into a plastic sleeve, twist the sleeve around the blade so it is tight, and place it into the wrongko. I then place the wrongko into a singap, and the singap into a chest.
I do not display keris anywhere in my house. In my private security room I have three keris that are not stored in the chests, and these are not in plastic sleeves, I might oil these keris perhaps once every six months. None of them have been stained in more than 15 years, all of them are in perfect condition.
Although I do not display keris, I do have 9 or 10 tombak around the house, some in a ploncon, some just leaning in corners. None of these blades are in plastic sleeves, all these blades are in perfect condition and they get oiled about once every six months or so.
Where I do not place a freshly oiled blade into a plastic sleeve, I strip excess oil from the blade with a toothbrush.
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