Restoration Workshop Library.

[kai]

Hello Alan,

In respect of what approach should be adopted in the restoration/conservation of historic weaponry, I feel that the philosophy of the professional restorator is probably correct:-

do as much as is necessary, and as little as is possible.

The crux is that we have a sliding scale here: a museum curator (of an academic ethnographic collection in Europe, for example) usually has a very different approach regarding what is "necessary" than what a keris enthusiast in central Jawa may deem "necessary" (and I realize that there even are different approaches within modern Jawanese society)...

Commenting or judging on possibly conflicting advice/tips may pose another problem.

I guess a kind of pluralistic approach that compiles (in a structured manner) diverse suggestions/explanations/discussions and, especially, reasonably detailed descriptions of methods may suffice (possibly with added warnings if really deemed necessary) rather than trying to edit an officially sanctioned "how to" manual.

In any case, I'd strongly endorse to link to each original posting so that it is possible to explore the original context.

Regards,
Kai