Hi Captain,
You are bringing up a question which has been extensively discussed in previous thread and with a little bit of searching in the old forum threads you will find good answers, but to my recollection all the answers indicate that if you want a good result namely a clear opposition between the nickel and the steel of the kriss you have to utilize arsenic, which in our countries is really difficult to get.
As I was living in Malaysia, I had the great chance of meeting several times Nik Rashidin Nik Hussein, a very talented wood sculptor, who was also a great kriss collector. Nik Din, as his nick name was, gave me the following formula, to achieve a decent staining,(if it is the right words) of the kriss blade :
10 of sulfur, 1 of salt, grind until it is very a fine powder, mix with rice water, dip the blade in the mixture for ½ a day, one day, 2 days it all depend of the circumstances, wash and oil.
I did it several time with satisfactory results but you have to watch the progress. You therefore have to wash and clean the blade after 6 hours look carefully and decide how many additional hours you want to leave it and re-dip the blade in the mixture which will have turned black when in contact with the metal.
Attached you will find 2 picturtes of a blade before and after treatment. Not very good picture !! sorry.
The mixture is corrosive but slowly. Attached is a kriss panjang that I forged and treated. You can see how the mixture slowly has eaten up the blade and its ganja. It is a way to age a blade.
Have fun !
Michel
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