Bali keris query follow up

[David]

Originally Posted by SidJ

Very grateful for your thoughts as always. Noted re cleaning well before staining. The stuff that remains is a very hard encrustation. I'm soaking the blade in mineral oil in the hope it will soften this enough to be scraped off. I don't have any wd40 at hand but will get some if the oil fails. The keris aesthetic in terms of form feels very harmonious to me for want of a better term. It has an elegant grace to the proportions in its simple ordinariness and I cannot identify any areas of harshness in this regard. Please do let me know if you see otherwise. I am perfectly content with negative views. It's nothing personal to me and aids learning about assessing keris.

Sid, i know it is never satisfying to post something and get limited responses, but often people choose not to respond when they don't feel they have anything of value to add to the conversation. So i wonder what more you are hoping for at this point. To be clear, i like this keris and if it crossed my path at the right price i would probably try to add it to my collection. That said, we are not looking at a high end piece of Balinese/Lombok keris art here. The proportions are not bad, but i might stop short of using the word "elegant". Ricikin such as greneng, sekar kacang and jalen all seem rather rough and not particularly well formed.
I would agree with Alan that pamor santa would probably be the best name for this pamor and that 19th century Lombok is a likely origin. I can assure you that real members of our forum have indeed been viewing this thread, but i am not sure what more engagement you were hoping for.

[A. G. Maisey]

Sid, to remove those hard encrustations we use a scraper & a hard pointed tool, I use a saddler's awl for the pointy thing, and for the scraper I use an old worn out three sided file that I have ground a radius onto.

You scrape and pick at the rust & then re-immerse in the cleaning medium. For spots such as you have, I would use hydrochloride acid dabbed onto the scraped spot and watched while it was working, & then repeat as many times as needed. Then I'd finish the cleaning with brief soak in vinegar, say, about a day.

After that, polish with sink cleaner & steel wool, in Jawa we use coconut husk & abu gosok.

After you get the blade white you can stain, not before.

[SidJ]

Thanks Alan
Good to know the right way to do it. What do you mean by grinding a radius in the presumably triangle shaped file please?

[A. G. Maisey]

By a radius, I mean a curve, a part of a circle.

So, using a grinder you grind a curve into the small end, not the tang end, of a three sided file, a 6"-8" file is about the right size.

The curve runs from one of the sides to the opposite edge.

[JeffS]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

By a radius, I mean a curve, a part of a circle.

So, using a grinder you grind a curve into the small end, not the tang end, of a three sided file, a 6"-8" file is about the right size.

The curve runs from one of the sides to the opposite edge.

Sorry, still trying to visualize this. Is the radius to blunt the point in order to widen the scraping surface to avoid gouging?

[A. G. Maisey]

The radius is to create a scraper cutting edge.

It is such as is found on a mechanic's bearing scraper.

At the moment I'm not at home, & will not be until March, then I can post a photo or two.

[SidJ]

Originally Posted by David

Sid, i know it is never satisfying to post something and get limited responses, but often people choose not to respond when they don't feel they have anything of value to add to the conversation. So i wonder what more you are hoping for at this point. To be clear, i like this keris and if it crossed my path at the right price i would probably try to add it to my collection. That said, we are not looking at a high end piece of Balinese/Lombok keris art here. The proportions are not bad, but i might stop short of using the word "elegant". Ricikin such as greneng, sekar kacang and jalen all seem rather rough and not particularly well formed.
I would agree with Alan that pamor santa would probably be the best name for this pamor and that 19th century Lombok is a likely origin. I can assure you that real members of our forum have indeed been viewing this thread, but i am not sure what more engagement you were hoping for.

Hi David
I had asked some questions which Alan has kindly responded to. That is the engagement I sought along with your own observations. Getting g thousands of views is great but I would not call that engagement in any meaningful way as it does not facilitate any learning.

[David]

Originally Posted by SidJ

Hi David
I had asked some questions which Alan has kindly responded to. That is the engagement I sought along with your own observations. Getting g thousands of views is great but I would not call that engagement in any meaningful way as it does not facilitate any learning.

Understood. But again, people are always going to look, but if they have nothing to offer of any value you wouldn't really want them to post, would you?

[SidJ]

Originally Posted by David

Understood. But again, people are always going to look, but if they have nothing to offer of any value you wouldn't really want them to post, would you?

Agree David. But my queries were fairly straightforward, which is why I found the lack of response puzzling given the high traffic it generated. Anyway all is well.