Corrosion on gilded keris blade

krissman · 24th January 2015, 09:45 PM

Thank you for the input. I suspected the piece was not old or "authentic" but paid for it accordingly. Since posting, I have gone ahead and successfully used the toluene to remove the corrosion and coated the blade with Ballistol which is used by gun enthusiasts for protecting steel and brass. We'll see how well that works out long term.

I do have to ask this though. When a blade has real gold on it, how is it applied? When electroplating gold, it is common to first plate the piece with copper and then plate it with gold. How was gold applied traditionally in Indonesia and how is it applied today? Was it fire gilded using mercury?

Thanks.

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24th January 2015, 09:45 PM	#4
krissman Member Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 4	Thank you for the input. I suspected the piece was not old or "authentic" but paid for it accordingly. Since posting, I have gone ahead and successfully used the toluene to remove the corrosion and coated the blade with Ballistol which is used by gun enthusiasts for protecting steel and brass. We'll see how well that works out long term. I do have to ask this though. When a blade has real gold on it, how is it applied? When electroplating gold, it is common to first plate the piece with copper and then plate it with gold. How was gold applied traditionally in Indonesia and how is it applied today? Was it fire gilded using mercury? Thanks.