Rusty Moro Kris

[tunggulametung]

Ok here is quick shot of before and after of last attempt. On macro there are some left over carbon in small cavities that need to be clean, but that can be done with oil easily later using softer small wire brush (need to find that for myself). Overall result is better in person/day light photo. This one take about two hours. Forget to mention, I use boiling water to start with. I guess you can also use quick and mild acid etch at this point so the blade didn't stays too long in acid such as in heavy cleaning.

Good luck.

[Battara]

Well, the etch for Moro swords is different and not as strong nor deep as it is for Indonesian pieces.

[Spunjer]

like tunggulametung said, you don't have to be specific. i used an ol' cheapo batt charger from sears, with 2Amps/8Amps switch, with it switched to 2 amps. then five 3/4" iron rebars and small gauge copper wires. i used carbonate soda (from walmart; brand name Arm and Hammer) for electrolyte and there you got it. just check up on it every 15-20 minute or so, depending how bad the rust is.

[mrwizard]

@Spunjer & Tunggulametung
Thanks for the pictures and detailed instructions.
I will definitely build a test-setup ( I have more than
enough rusty stuff lying around). If i will use it for the
moro kris i will decide later.

@Battara
Thanks for dating the kris. After looking at some picture
it may indeed be a sulu blade. I see no evidence of former metal applications on the hilt (nails, rifts, holes, etc.)
If there were any, the must have either been glued or the hilt must have been recarved after their removal.

I will keep you informed about the further progess.

Best Regards,
Thilo

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by mrwizard

I will keep you informed about the further progess.

Best Regards,
Thilo

Do you can post some results?

Regards,

Detlef

[mrwizard]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Do you can post some results?

Ooppss, sorry. The last year was a quite busy one and i'm just catching up on reading all the posts on this forum.

I built a test-setup large enough to contain a rusty crow-bar. As power-supply i used a computer power supply that is able to deliver 5A @12V. The counter electrode was a steel-band roughly the same length of the crow-bar and placed parallel to the crow-bar. The electrolyte used was sodium carbonate. And this is what happened: The power supply immediately switched off. I guess it detected a short. So i started pulling the setup out to see at what length of crow-bar could be cleaned with my setup (don't try this at home!). Turns out 40cm of crow-bar can be cleaned with this rather primitive setup. Putting in a high-power resistor that limits the current to 5A (2.4Ohms) would probably allow larger items at the cost of speed and isotropy.

However, i didn't follow that path because i didn't manage get the hilt off and i didn't want to stain the hilt with the rather nasty electrolitic solution. So i went to the classic approach with low concentration citric acid...

The results can be seen in the attached photos. The blade lamination that is not really visible on the photos shows a small edge around a uniform core.

[Sajen]

Good result!