Keris lurus/sepokal Bugis for comment

[David]

Originally Posted by jagabuwana

Apart from arsenic being difficult to obtain outside of Indo, is there another reason why collectors of Bugis keris forego it?

I do believe it is fair to say that the currently accepted method of care for Bugis keris in general does not include warangan treatment. And we must, of course, carefully define here what we mean exactly when we say "Bugis" keris because we find Bugis style keris all over the archipelago since they were seafaring traders who set up communities in many parts of that area. However, i believe we have shown evidence that areas where today most collectors will claim no warangan has ever been used in maintaining keris did indeed use it to some extent. Perhaps not across the board, but that does not mean not at all. You can find an interesting discussion on this on this thread where some evidence from as early as 1839 has been presented that warangan was used th the Straits of Malacca area at one time. I can't really say if that was on Bugis keris, but it is certainly an area where today many collectors will insist that warangan has never been used. So this is not really a matter of absolutes i think.
http://vikingsword.com/vb/showthread...warangan+bugis
As for these modern times, it seems that the general practice is just to clean keris with lime and not to stain the blades. Though i do own a bugis blade from Sulawesi that, as far as i know, had never left the geographic area (so not stained by a Western collector) that i acquired from a dealer in Singapore that is richly stained black with warangan. When i received this blade some years ago it appeared to me that the stain was not particularly an old one (though if properly maintained a good stain can last many years). But i would image the stain was applied in modern times in a Malay setting. So it does seem to me that at least some people do use warangan on Bugis blades regardless of the general practices followed in this day and age. In the end i would suggest that it is your keris and therefore your choice. I also believe that some keris will undoubtedly look better without warangan while other will look better with.