Staining keris with Chinese warangan

A. G. Maisey · 26th July 2009, 11:33 PM

Jai, I don't think you will remove any file marks with coconut husk. We use the husk with abu gosok in the same way that here in Australia we use a pot cleaner and powdered sink cleaner to remove dirty marks from pots and sinks.The husk and abu gosok is used to make the blade white, prior to beginning the staining.

If you want to do a refinish you need wet and dry paper, but quite frankly, I'd leave the file marks alone. You cannot just remove a little bit, if you start to play around with the finish, you really need to refinish the entire surface of the blade, and then age the surface again, then begin the staining process again. Truly, you are looking at a major project to do this, especially if you do not have any sort of workshop set up.

If I were you I would not go fiddling around with the finish.

The situation you have to work in is far from ideal, however, a friend in Canada once did a halfway decent job working in his basement during winter in Alberta, so you'll get some sort of result. What I've been telling you up to now is for optimum results.

Rick, I've read somewhere in one of the old books about the necessity to do the job outside only when the trade winds are blowing, because if not, you die a horrible, painful death from inhalation of the fumes.Where I live there are no trade winds, I always work outside , so there is always circulation of air, but I have very, very often got a whiff of the vaguely unpleasant smell of the job, and I'm still sucking air. I gave up worrying about the fumes years ago.

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26th July 2009, 11:33 PM	#28
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,056	Jai, I don't think you will remove any file marks with coconut husk. We use the husk with abu gosok in the same way that here in Australia we use a pot cleaner and powdered sink cleaner to remove dirty marks from pots and sinks.The husk and abu gosok is used to make the blade white, prior to beginning the staining. If you want to do a refinish you need wet and dry paper, but quite frankly, I'd leave the file marks alone. You cannot just remove a little bit, if you start to play around with the finish, you really need to refinish the entire surface of the blade, and then age the surface again, then begin the staining process again. Truly, you are looking at a major project to do this, especially if you do not have any sort of workshop set up. If I were you I would not go fiddling around with the finish. The situation you have to work in is far from ideal, however, a friend in Canada once did a halfway decent job working in his basement during winter in Alberta, so you'll get some sort of result. What I've been telling you up to now is for optimum results. Rick, I've read somewhere in one of the old books about the necessity to do the job outside only when the trade winds are blowing, because if not, you die a horrible, painful death from inhalation of the fumes.Where I live there are no trade winds, I always work outside , so there is always circulation of air, but I have very, very often got a whiff of the vaguely unpleasant smell of the job, and I'm still sucking air. I gave up worrying about the fumes years ago.