Moro kris , to clean or not to clean ?
 

I recently acquired this moro kris , I'm not sure what region it's from etc , but there is quite alot of rust , I have taken the light surface rust off with some steel wool ,but im wondering should I go further with cleaning ,or is it stripping it of its age and use ?

Looks like a nice3 1920s Magunindanao kris. I would clean the silver - silver was meant to shine.

Also, if you cleaned the blade, re-etch it to have the laminations come out.

Tom, I agree with Battara. The silver should be cleaned, as well as the white metal on the scabbard (hard to say whether this is silver, probably not--could be nickel, white brass, or tin). The blade justifies a thorough cleaning and etching as there is already a nice pattern visible.

Nice kris. As Battara noted, an early 20th C example.

Interesting metal tab that is attached to the ferrule ring and laying on top of the gonjo .

Suppose it ever had a baca-baca stirrup once?
Sure looks like it did.

Yes I wondered about this tab ,was it originally there to hold a stirrup in place , Also thanks for everyone's advice in cleaning the sword , I will do the best I can but looks like it will take alot of work , thanks

Agreed with the others, clean it and try to give it a new baca-baca. ;)

I would oil and clean the wooden parts with oil (linseed, olive..) and polish the metal parts. I also would clean the blade further and like suggested by Jose and Ian etch it.

Regards,
Detlef

Well I've given it a good clean , the silver came up well and the scabbard, but the blade needs more work than I thought , I havnt etched the blade yet because i think it needs to be cleaner to see any pattern , I'm not sure whether to carry on with it as it will take so much work to sand it down , I wouldn't use a machine sander as I know they can distort the shape of the blade ?

For really dry wood I've been experimenting with lots of almond oil. The wood just soaks it up because of its extremely low viscosity. Then after a few days to a week I add the coats of linseed oil.

Jep, almond oil is very good! :)

OH much nicer! :)

Results after cleaning
 

Well thanks for all you advice,
I have cleaned the scabbard,and used olive oil for the wood,
Then i have sanded the blade with a fine grit wet and dry paper , it's took quite alot of work to get it looking like this ,I'm not sure where to stop,should I carry on sanding untill it's got rid of all the light pitting ? ,in general it looks alot btter