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Originally Posted by David
I do believe it is fair to say that the currently accepted method of care for Bugis keris in general does not include warangan treatment.
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I wonder, why they used pamor steel for Keris Bugis and never applied a staining? As far as I know arsenic must be added to the metal during the forging process to create the black phase of pamor steel after warangan. In my eyes it would make not much sense to add arsenic to the metal without later staining.
It might be interesting to know, that the staining is not really permanent. A little bit of metal polish is enough to remove the whole staining. This means the staining is not very resistant and need to be renewed after some decades or so, depending on environmental conditions and so on. Only under ideal conditions, in a collection for example, the staining can survive over centurys (in my hometown Dresden in the collection of the famous king August the Strong are two Keris from the 17ct. and the warangan is in very good condition. But that is an exeption).
Keris Bugis blades may had never been stained but what i can say for sure is that they were often or sometimes relief-etched. I hope someone knows, what etchant did they used? This would be very helpful.
Roland