barung, kris, gunong: my first post

[Ian]

PBH:

You will find a lot of discussion of etching blades on these pages. If you use the Search function there should be plenty of guidance.

In the original culture it would be common to use pineapple juice or lime juice to etch the blades, and both of these natural acids work well. White vinegar is also good. Many people also use ferric chloride which can be found at hardware stores in the U.S. but may be harder to find in the Philippines.

The nice thing about etching blades lightly is that you can polish them back to bright metal and start again if you don't like the finish. Just don't get the etchant on the more delicate materials on the hilts.

Good luck and please show us the results of your etching.

Ian.

[Pinoy Blade Hunter]

i tried acid etching with vinegar on the gunong and the kris,

the gunong when seen upclose shows very nice layers but doesnt show much in the pictures.

the kris seemed to be made from monosteel but with hardened edges. the temper line is not even (sloppy work on my part maybe? or the smith?)

anyway, i will polish the kris again to bring it back to silver metal color because i liked it better that way. i thought i was gonna find out that this kris has layers.

[F. de Luzon]

That's a nice gunong, PBH!

[sakimori]

Really nice gunong and kris.Would love to see the kris after polishing.