Ambon Keris for interest

[Larks]

Originally Posted by Jean

This style of hilt is called rekko in Sulawesi and is also found in East Sumatra, see a similar specimen.
I am curious to see the blade condition after cleaning as it is severely worn-out and rusty.
Regards

Hi Jean, here it is “mostly” cleaned, with still a few stubborn spots of rust that I’m trying to remove gently, rather than chipping them off or doing anything drastic that may damage the blade further.

I may be crucified here for the way I have gone about this but I was not able to remove the handle by heating the blade without putting more and more effort into it such that I feared doing irreversible damage. So I have ended up suspending it in vinegar and working it gently over 24 hours with a brass wire brush to clean it up. As a result I’m not all that happy with what it’s done to the colour of the selut but I’ll see how/if that may change when I polish it later.

I’ll give it overnight tonight and see how it is but I don’t want to overcook it and loose more metal from the blade by doing so.

So my query now is what to do with the rust removed? Should I gently polish the blade to try and remove the roughness caused by the rust and the acid action of the vinegar/rust removal. And should I perhaps smooth out the blade edge with a steel or fine file to remove the rough serrations caused by the rust and subsequent cleaning?

Or should I just now preserve it now with oil as described in other posts and leave it as it is? Would anyone disagree with using Renaissance wax on a Keris (as I use on my other swords) instead of the aromatic oils that I’ve read about?

[IMG]IMG_1848 by Greg Larkin, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]IMG_1847 by Greg Larkin, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]IMG_1846 by Greg Larkin, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG]IMG_1849 by Greg Larkin, on Flickr[/IMG]