Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

A. G. Maisey · 24th July 2025, 11:18 PM

Sid, if that hilt has been put on with Araldite or something similar it needs to get above 80C (176F) before it loses bond strength.

Gentle heat will do nothing at all.

I usually use a propane torch & play the flame over the sorsoran of the blade, I hold the blade with my bare hand a few inches further towards the point, & when the blade gets too hot to hold I take the torch away & hold the blade point down until the blade gets cool enough to hold again.

Shock!!

Horror!!!

I can hear a lot of people screaming at what a barbarian I am.

Thing is this:- keris blades are only heat treated for the first few inches of the blade, just the point and a bit behind it, occasionally I have found a blade that has been hardened back as far as the point of the sogokan, but never into the sosoran. Some keris blades are not truly hardened at all, particularly blades with complex pamor miring.

To draw a temper in steel treated for cutting wood --- or pushing into a human body --- you need to get into the blue range of temperatures, a bit like the guide used for sharpening chisels on a grinding wheel:- when you begin to see the blue coming into the blade you immediately dip your chisel into the water you have alongside the grinding wheel. But the heat treat for a keris blade does not include a draw, it is just hardened, & the residual heat above the quench bleeds back into the hardened section that has been created by the sepuhan and draws it down a little bit.

With a keris you normally cannot read the colour of the steel, because the steel needs to be white to start with and a keris is either stained or dirty, but if you keep the steel temperature below the level at which it loses a working edge you will not ever do any damage.

Here is a link to a good colour guide:-

https://www.servicesteel.org/resourc...mpering-colors

heating a keris blade you cannot use colour, but this guide demonstrates just how hot you need to get heat treated steel for it to lose the temper. But as I have written, with a keris, most of the blade is not hard to begin with, & up around the sorsoran there is no temper to lose.

I suggest that you lose the gentle approach & be brave, use common sense & you will do no damage. It truly is a very easy job to remove a hilt, once you understand the process. If you fail the first time, just put the blade aside & try again after it has completely cooled down. It might be necessary to repeat the heat/cool process a few times, doing this the miniscule expansion/contraction weakens the bond & it can usually be removed easily.

Just one gentle word of warning:- some hilts are held very firmly in place with rust, if you suspect that the problem is rust, you need to back off on excess strength unless you are prepared to repair the tang if it breaks, & that repair is really not a job for an amateur.

24th July 2025, 11:18 PM	#5
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,043	Sid, if that hilt has been put on with Araldite or something similar it needs to get above 80C (176F) before it loses bond strength. Gentle heat will do nothing at all. I usually use a propane torch & play the flame over the sorsoran of the blade, I hold the blade with my bare hand a few inches further towards the point, & when the blade gets too hot to hold I take the torch away & hold the blade point down until the blade gets cool enough to hold again. Shock!! Horror!!! I can hear a lot of people screaming at what a barbarian I am. Thing is this:- keris blades are only heat treated for the first few inches of the blade, just the point and a bit behind it, occasionally I have found a blade that has been hardened back as far as the point of the sogokan, but never into the sosoran. Some keris blades are not truly hardened at all, particularly blades with complex pamor miring. To draw a temper in steel treated for cutting wood --- or pushing into a human body --- you need to get into the blue range of temperatures, a bit like the guide used for sharpening chisels on a grinding wheel:- when you begin to see the blue coming into the blade you immediately dip your chisel into the water you have alongside the grinding wheel. But the heat treat for a keris blade does not include a draw, it is just hardened, & the residual heat above the quench bleeds back into the hardened section that has been created by the sepuhan and draws it down a little bit. With a keris you normally cannot read the colour of the steel, because the steel needs to be white to start with and a keris is either stained or dirty, but if you keep the steel temperature below the level at which it loses a working edge you will not ever do any damage. Here is a link to a good colour guide:- https://www.servicesteel.org/resourc...mpering-colors heating a keris blade you cannot use colour, but this guide demonstrates just how hot you need to get heat treated steel for it to lose the temper. But as I have written, with a keris, most of the blade is not hard to begin with, & up around the sorsoran there is no temper to lose. I suggest that you lose the gentle approach & be brave, use common sense & you will do no damage. It truly is a very easy job to remove a hilt, once you understand the process. If you fail the first time, just put the blade aside & try again after it has completely cooled down. It might be necessary to repeat the heat/cool process a few times, doing this the miniscule expansion/contraction weakens the bond & it can usually be removed easily. Just one gentle word of warning:- some hilts are held very firmly in place with rust, if you suspect that the problem is rust, you need to back off on excess strength unless you are prepared to repair the tang if it breaks, & that repair is really not a job for an amateur.