yet another Moro Kris

[mrwizard]

Thanks for all the input.
I never had the intention to mess with the cloth wrap
and your remarks that it might be (or contain) an
anting anting reinforces that intention.
This also means that i would be very difficult to fix the wrongko, as some of the damage is right under the
cloth wrap. I think i will leave the scabbard alone for now.

For the sword: The blade was in a rather good condition when i got it (see first picture). There was some rust
and dried dirt/oil at the base of the blade. Mostly near the asang-asang. Therefore i *carefully* cleaned the blade
according the advice found in this forum. The result can be seen in the last two pictures.
Further cleaning would mean using abrasive cleaning as even the smaller pitting goes as deep as 10-15 microns
(optical measurement with a microscope).
The deep ones go up to 500 microns. Removing them would most likely damage the carvings on the blade.
I don't want to go there. After all it's an old blade and should be allowed to look like one.

However i still think about removing the lacquer from the hilt. It is already quite brittle and has fallen of in some locations.
Does anyone have an idea what material the black gripping area of the hilt could be made of? Looks like rattan covered with tar.