Over cleaning the keris blade?

[David]

Originally Posted by Green

This is only my uneducated view but based on the kerises I've seen in museums here I've not seen any keris that are cleaned as such and they all are left rusty and looking 'aged'.

Green, you would not likely see keris in museums presented in the way Jean's stained blade is because it is not generally the practice of museums to restore a keris, but rather to conserve it, to preserve it at the same level as when it was received at the time of collection.However, when a keris of this sort was actively being used within the culture it would be part of a regular ritual process to clean and re-stain the blade.
Likewise collectors have different approaches for the care of keris dependent upon how they relate to the weapon culturally. Some like to keep keris at the same condition as when collected, other treat the keris as if it is still active within the culture and give it the treatment that would be expected of someone's personal keris.