Yes, the cleaning process will expose any material that does not have a tight grain. That's certain. If the material is good quality and the grain in the iron is tight cleaning only removes the rust and dirt. Often cleaning an old keris will result in the keris coming out of the cleaning solution --- pineapple juice, lime juice, citric acid, vinegar --- whatever --- looking as if it has just been stained. But you cannot compensate for poor quality material. If you have any doubts about the quality of material in a blade it is safer to clean it mechanically --- stones, wet & dry paper --- and then just lightly etch with vinegar or similar.
Balinese keris are not cleaned in the same way as Javanese keris, they are polished clean with sand, or with ground up lime stone. We can achieve the same finish with wet & dry paper.
Old keris that have been out of Jawa for a long time do very often have a smooth finish to the blade.
|