Philippine monosteel Blades. Preserving and restoring

[oldschldude]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Hello Oldschldude,

the blade from the Luzon sword in up I've cleaned with sandpaper only, by such a rusted blade you can start with 80 and can end with 1000 to get a nice smooth finish but know people which go higher.
Your barong blade don't seems to have bad rust so I would start with 120 or 160 paper. I bet that your blade will show lamination, look close to the spine if you can see lamination lines.
I wouldn't clean such a blade with any sort of acid like pineapple juice, the blade will get a grey/dull surface and it will need a lot of polishing to get it away again. The sandpaper you can use dry or with oil. Before you start to etch a blade clean it with aceton to remove all oil and grease.
Thank you for the compliment.

Best regards,
Detlef

Thank You for this information. I think I got a grip now on how to restore or preserve Filipino blades mono steel or laminated. The same process for both.
Either to etch or not to etch after polishing and the kinds of acid/techniques to use and their effects for etching. Also to restore or just to stop the rust or just leave it alone(oil) if blade has provenance of importance as someone on this forum mentioned. I will post pics before and after of this barong.

As for the history of materials used for construction,
I found this site just now. SANDATA — THE EDGED WEAPONS OF THE PHILIPPINES
http://www.arscives.com/historysteel...troduction.htm
Thanks again Detlef and everyone... Oldschldude