Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

nechesh · 14th September 2005, 10:08 PM

Thank you Boedhi Adhitya, another fine and informative post. I must disagree with you on one point though, the brush on method is not exclusive to the Jogjakarta court. I use this method myself in the Midwest USA.

BTW, here is a link to an old thread which gives direction to the same method, but perhaps with slightly different details: http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000717.html
One thing i have found is that it is important, at least where i live, to use only bottled distilled water during the process. Perhaps it's the floride in the tap water or other minerals or metals, but when i first tried this with tap water i got stange golden stains. I just did some blades this past weekend with distilled water and the results were pretty good. I think other things that might effect the final staining color (aside from the type of irons used in the blade) are extreme temperatures or humidity levels. I have been using As2O3 since i never knew where to get realgar in this country. It is indeed very toxic as you say, but still very safe if you use your head (i.e. keep your fingers out of your mouth

). I bought a gram a few years ago and i still have almost half that left after about four or five rounds of staining. It cost $50 back then ($25 for the gm and a $25 dangerous materials handling fee) so it's a bit more expensive that the realgar. For those interested in how to obtain some, i googled arsenic trioxide and started making calls to some big chemical companies customer service depts. They won't, of course, sell to a private citizen like myself, but i did find a company that was willing to give me the names of companies local to my area that they ARE allowed to sell to. After a bit of yellow pages research and a few more phone calls i finally found a local company that was willing to make the purchase for me. I was very up front and described the exact purpose and process that i required the arsenic for. When it arrived i when to their locale and picked it up. I know it all sound pretty complicated, but in practice it really wasn't all that difficult. It is possible that i was just lucky.

Boedhi Adhitya, you mention gold not being affected by the warangan. Are you certain this is so? I have an unstained keris that has what i am fairly sure is gold foil overlay. I would love to raise the pamor on this blade but was uncertain what effect the arsenic would have on the gold. It was suggested to me to try covering the gold with clear nail polish for the procedure. Are you saying this is not necessary, that the gold won't turn color?

Thank you for your help on this. Each time i do this process i get better and better results and i am sure that with your added tips my staining can only improve further.

14th September 2005, 10:08 PM	#15
nechesh Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Cincinnati, OH Posts: 940	Thank you Boedhi Adhitya, another fine and informative post. I must disagree with you on one point though, the brush on method is not exclusive to the Jogjakarta court. I use this method myself in the Midwest USA. BTW, here is a link to an old thread which gives direction to the same method, but perhaps with slightly different details: http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000717.html One thing i have found is that it is important, at least where i live, to use only bottled distilled water during the process. Perhaps it's the floride in the tap water or other minerals or metals, but when i first tried this with tap water i got stange golden stains. I just did some blades this past weekend with distilled water and the results were pretty good. I think other things that might effect the final staining color (aside from the type of irons used in the blade) are extreme temperatures or humidity levels. I have been using As2O3 since i never knew where to get realgar in this country. It is indeed very toxic as you say, but still very safe if you use your head (i.e. keep your fingers out of your mouth ). I bought a gram a few years ago and i still have almost half that left after about four or five rounds of staining. It cost $50 back then ($25 for the gm and a $25 dangerous materials handling fee) so it's a bit more expensive that the realgar. For those interested in how to obtain some, i googled arsenic trioxide and started making calls to some big chemical companies customer service depts. They won't, of course, sell to a private citizen like myself, but i did find a company that was willing to give me the names of companies local to my area that they ARE allowed to sell to. After a bit of yellow pages research and a few more phone calls i finally found a local company that was willing to make the purchase for me. I was very up front and described the exact purpose and process that i required the arsenic for. When it arrived i when to their locale and picked it up. I know it all sound pretty complicated, but in practice it really wasn't all that difficult. It is possible that i was just lucky. Boedhi Adhitya, you mention gold not being affected by the warangan. Are you certain this is so? I have an unstained keris that has what i am fairly sure is gold foil overlay. I would love to raise the pamor on this blade but was uncertain what effect the arsenic would have on the gold. It was suggested to me to try covering the gold with clear nail polish for the procedure. Are you saying this is not necessary, that the gold won't turn color? Thank you for your help on this. Each time i do this process i get better and better results and i am sure that with your added tips my staining can only improve further.