Keris in need of TLC

Jerseyman · 21st May 2023, 11:16 PM

This is a recent acquisition. Keris are not my area of collecting, though I have the inevitable handful of items included as secondary pieces in auction lots, but this one caught my eye.

I'm afraid I only have the poor quality auction photos to share at the moment.

I would of course be interested in any information the knowledgeable might be able to share, but my primary request is for thoughts on how I might sympathetically restore the blade. Normally I would approach it carefully with a little oil and either 0000 steel wool or 800/1000 grit paper, but I suspect that is not the best approach with a pamor blade. Being UK based any products suggested would need to be UK available.

I would be grateful for any knowledge and suggestions shared.

A. G. Maisey · 22nd May 2023, 12:42 AM

Below is something I prepared years ago for people who asked me questions similar to your question.

I used to recommend pineapple juice as the cleaning agent, I no longer do because I can no longer buy pure, natural pineapple juice where I live. I could make my own, but that would cost too much, and ordinary household white vinegar is just as effective.

I actually completed the vinegar cleaning of three pamor pedang blades yesterday, I brought these back from Bali 9 or 10 days ago, and they were in heavily rusted condition, it took 4 days of exactly what is in the below cleaning instructions to bring these blades to a condition where they can be stained.

When your keris is clean it will need to be stained.

Staining a keris blade correctly carries an element of risk & I am not prepared to put instructions for this on a public notice board. If you wish to understand the staining process, PM me.

CLEANING A KERIS BLADE

Actually any mildly acidic agent will do the job. In Jawa the traditional agent is coconut water, but in recent years people have used other acids such as citric, and very dilute sulphuric.

Vinegar works well too.

Remove the hilt & mendak before beginning the process.

Scrub the blade with detergent and a hard toothbrush under warm running water, to get rid of any surface dirt and oil. Lay the blade in a trough and cover with the cleaning agent.

A plastic wall paper hanging trough is good for this. Remove the blade each day and scrub it under running water with a hard tooth brush, to remove the rust that the cleaning agent has freed up.

I usually do this twice a day-morning and evening.

After a few days you will find that most of the rust has washed off, but there will probably be still a few small areas that have little bits of hard rust stuck to them. Carefully chip these pieces of rust off with a sharp tool. A small sharp pocket knife blade, or a saddler's needle works well.

Most blades come clean in under a week, but it could take longer.

My experience with household vinegar is that longer periods in the soak do the blade no harm at all.

When all the rust is off, wash the blade thoroughly, and if you do not intend to stain it, kill residual acid with bi-carbonate of soda. Paint on a slurry, leave for a few minutes, thoroughly rinse off. Pat the blade dry, and then leave in hot sunlight, or use a hairdryer or heat gun to ensure it is totally dry.

This completes the cleaning process.

Storage in a plastic sleeve & use of oil is recommended.

milandro · 22nd May 2023, 01:46 PM

Plenty of information already given.

I would say that it is indeed not recommended to use any abrasives on a finished kris blade.

Mild Acids are all going to do the job.

Etching, is optional, but is not an easy job but... you may certainly try the methods recommended in many threads here. If you have someone whom washes in Warangan over there ( we have a few in the NL) do that.

About preserving in a plastic sleeve with oil, in the NL this is not done, to my knowledge ( and I know quite a few collectors) . I don't think that in a normal British house this would be a requirement unless humidity is very high. Collectors in tropical climates may have different requirements but temperate climates don't, in my experience, require this.

I would add that this is a Maduran blade and sarong and that the hilt is showing in the opposite orientation. Its is normally (or it should be) only friction mounted with some cloth inside you should be able to gently ease it off and then when finished with cleaning put it in the right way.

A. G. Maisey · 22nd May 2023, 02:27 PM

You might be right about the use of plastic sleeves Milandro, but I guess it all comes back to individual standards & objectives.

My own objective in respect of blade preservation is that once I have cleaned and stained a blade I want to put it away for as long as I need or wish, and expect come back to it in 5, ten or twenty years & find a perfectly preserved blade with no corrosion present.

This result can be achieved by use of my recommended procedure.

On the other hand, a blade of ferric material can develop corrosion in a very short period, say 6 months or less, if it is left in contact with wood.

The museums where I have assisted staff have kept keris & other blades in climate controlled rooms, removed from scabbards, and resting on glass. These have been Australian museums.

I have also examined keris and other bladed weapons in European museums, and in the European museums where I have had the opportunity to examine their holdings I have found that the conditions in which their bladed weapons are held are absolutely terrible, no attempt had been made to prevent corrosion, and sometimes keris were so badly corroded that they could not be removed from their scabbards.

There are very good reasons for this failure to conserve & protect public property, but that is another matter.

The simple, inarguable fact is that ferric material left in contact with wood or cloth will rust, if we do not want it to rust we must protect it.

I live in south east Australia, which is a temperate zone, I am 25 metres from a salt water lake, if I do not wish my quite considerable collection of bladed weapons to deteriorate I must protect them, plastic sleeving & oil is a cheap & simple way to do this.

For around 20 years I lived in a different part of Australia that had low humidity, even here I found that continued contact of a steel blade with wood was capable of generating corrosion.

If one has only a few bladed weapons and enjoys handling them continually, then it is probably no big problem to ensure that every item is examined every few weeks, cleaned & returned to display or storage, but if one has several hundred, or perhaps several thousand bladed weapons, this continual examination is not really an option.

As I have said:- it all comes down to one's objectives & expectations.

JustYS · 22nd May 2023, 03:47 PM

Just my 2 cents regarding oil and plastic sleeve

My collection is very small (I can count with my fingers), but I also use oil and plastic sleeve.

I believe oiling keris is not only part of maintenance but also part of tradition.

Moreover I enjoy oiling keris (I do it every month or two), I feel more connection to the keris.

David · 22nd May 2023, 06:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JustYS

Just my 2 cents regarding oil and plastic sleeve

My collection is very small (I can count with my fingers), but I also use oil and plastic sleeve.

I believe oiling keris is not only part of maintenance but also part of tradition.

Moreover I enjoy oiling keris (I do it every month or two), I feel more connection to the keris.

I also like to oil my collection regularly, though i should get on a more frequent schedule. But i understand what you mean by it connecting you more to your collection. There is something loving and nurturing in the act. When i do get around to oiling the complete collection (i have a tendency to apply oil when i believe it looks needed whenever i might pick up and individual keris for examination) it also gives me an opportunity to review all of what i have. I generally end up doing this in two separate sessions since my collection is up around 100 these days.
I completely understand Alan's recommendation for plastic sleeves, but have not personally picked up the practice myself. I have been collecting for a few decades at this point and have never had any serious problems with rust accumulation on my blades, first in New York City, then 20 years in Cincinnati and for the last 5 years on the South Shore of Nova Scotia living no more than a mile or so from the Atlantic Ocean.
While i am sure that Alan is correct about plastic sleeves helping to protect the blades i am on a personal mission to reduce plastic in my environment on every level. I suppose the plastic used to wrap a blade gets used for a long time before it ends up in the environment, but that will be the eventual destination for it sooner or later. And while i do not doubt that ferric material left in contact with wood will rust more quickly i just don't like placing unnatural substances around a keris blade. Perhaps i have not had any serious rust problems simply because i do try to oil my entire collection regularly, but like you JustYS, i consider it one of the pleasures of collecting rather than an arduous task.

21st May 2023, 11:16 PM	#1
Jerseyman Member Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 97	Keris in need of TLC This is a recent acquisition. Keris are not my area of collecting, though I have the inevitable handful of items included as secondary pieces in auction lots, but this one caught my eye. I'm afraid I only have the poor quality auction photos to share at the moment. I would of course be interested in any information the knowledgeable might be able to share, but my primary request is for thoughts on how I might sympathetically restore the blade. Normally I would approach it carefully with a little oil and either 0000 steel wool or 800/1000 grit paper, but I suspect that is not the best approach with a pamor blade. Being UK based any products suggested would need to be UK available. I would be grateful for any knowledge and suggestions shared. Attached Images

22nd May 2023, 12:42 AM	#2
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,892	Below is something I prepared years ago for people who asked me questions similar to your question. I used to recommend pineapple juice as the cleaning agent, I no longer do because I can no longer buy pure, natural pineapple juice where I live. I could make my own, but that would cost too much, and ordinary household white vinegar is just as effective. I actually completed the vinegar cleaning of three pamor pedang blades yesterday, I brought these back from Bali 9 or 10 days ago, and they were in heavily rusted condition, it took 4 days of exactly what is in the below cleaning instructions to bring these blades to a condition where they can be stained. When your keris is clean it will need to be stained. Staining a keris blade correctly carries an element of risk & I am not prepared to put instructions for this on a public notice board. If you wish to understand the staining process, PM me. CLEANING A KERIS BLADE Actually any mildly acidic agent will do the job. In Jawa the traditional agent is coconut water, but in recent years people have used other acids such as citric, and very dilute sulphuric. Vinegar works well too. Remove the hilt & mendak before beginning the process. Scrub the blade with detergent and a hard toothbrush under warm running water, to get rid of any surface dirt and oil. Lay the blade in a trough and cover with the cleaning agent. A plastic wall paper hanging trough is good for this. Remove the blade each day and scrub it under running water with a hard tooth brush, to remove the rust that the cleaning agent has freed up. I usually do this twice a day-morning and evening. After a few days you will find that most of the rust has washed off, but there will probably be still a few small areas that have little bits of hard rust stuck to them. Carefully chip these pieces of rust off with a sharp tool. A small sharp pocket knife blade, or a saddler's needle works well. Most blades come clean in under a week, but it could take longer. My experience with household vinegar is that longer periods in the soak do the blade no harm at all. When all the rust is off, wash the blade thoroughly, and if you do not intend to stain it, kill residual acid with bi-carbonate of soda. Paint on a slurry, leave for a few minutes, thoroughly rinse off. Pat the blade dry, and then leave in hot sunlight, or use a hairdryer or heat gun to ensure it is totally dry. This completes the cleaning process. Storage in a plastic sleeve & use of oil is recommended.

22nd May 2023, 01:46 PM	#3
milandro Member Join Date: Jan 2022 Location: Netherlands Posts: 475	Plenty of information already given. I would say that it is indeed not recommended to use any abrasives on a finished kris blade. Mild Acids are all going to do the job. Etching, is optional, but is not an easy job but... you may certainly try the methods recommended in many threads here. If you have someone whom washes in Warangan over there ( we have a few in the NL) do that. About preserving in a plastic sleeve with oil, in the NL this is not done, to my knowledge ( and I know quite a few collectors) . I don't think that in a normal British house this would be a requirement unless humidity is very high. Collectors in tropical climates may have different requirements but temperate climates don't, in my experience, require this. I would add that this is a Maduran blade and sarong and that the hilt is showing in the opposite orientation. Its is normally (or it should be) only friction mounted with some cloth inside you should be able to gently ease it off and then when finished with cleaning put it in the right way.

22nd May 2023, 02:27 PM	#4
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,892	You might be right about the use of plastic sleeves Milandro, but I guess it all comes back to individual standards & objectives. My own objective in respect of blade preservation is that once I have cleaned and stained a blade I want to put it away for as long as I need or wish, and expect come back to it in 5, ten or twenty years & find a perfectly preserved blade with no corrosion present. This result can be achieved by use of my recommended procedure. On the other hand, a blade of ferric material can develop corrosion in a very short period, say 6 months or less, if it is left in contact with wood. The museums where I have assisted staff have kept keris & other blades in climate controlled rooms, removed from scabbards, and resting on glass. These have been Australian museums. I have also examined keris and other bladed weapons in European museums, and in the European museums where I have had the opportunity to examine their holdings I have found that the conditions in which their bladed weapons are held are absolutely terrible, no attempt had been made to prevent corrosion, and sometimes keris were so badly corroded that they could not be removed from their scabbards. There are very good reasons for this failure to conserve & protect public property, but that is another matter. The simple, inarguable fact is that ferric material left in contact with wood or cloth will rust, if we do not want it to rust we must protect it. I live in south east Australia, which is a temperate zone, I am 25 metres from a salt water lake, if I do not wish my quite considerable collection of bladed weapons to deteriorate I must protect them, plastic sleeving & oil is a cheap & simple way to do this. For around 20 years I lived in a different part of Australia that had low humidity, even here I found that continued contact of a steel blade with wood was capable of generating corrosion. If one has only a few bladed weapons and enjoys handling them continually, then it is probably no big problem to ensure that every item is examined every few weeks, cleaned & returned to display or storage, but if one has several hundred, or perhaps several thousand bladed weapons, this continual examination is not really an option. As I have said:- it all comes down to one's objectives & expectations.

22nd May 2023, 03:47 PM	#5
JustYS Member Join Date: Apr 2019 Posts: 138	Just my 2 cents regarding oil and plastic sleeve My collection is very small (I can count with my fingers), but I also use oil and plastic sleeve. I believe oiling keris is not only part of maintenance but also part of tradition. Moreover I enjoy oiling keris (I do it every month or two), I feel more connection to the keris.