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[GIO]

Please apologize my ignorance: such blade, and generally all blades without pamor, should be etched as Henk suggests or not ?
I have a few restored Panjang blades, but I did not etch them.

[kai]

Hello Gio,

Please apologize my ignorance: such blade, and generally all blades without pamor, should be etched as Henk suggests or not ?

Some of the pamor-less Javanese blades are meant to be stained black with warangan treatment as you know.

In the Malay world including much of Sumatra, blades of this style are usually kept smooth: polished and only swiftly etched/stained. It stands to reason that the minority, blades with distinct miring pamor, will have benefited from warangan treatment while it is often not clear what the preferred treatment for the huge majority of laminated blades with only low-contrast pamor was in different areas historically. It's likely that this often only was an acid etch with fruit juice or vinegar.

Roy's blade is clearly laminated and this will most probably show nicely with little effort and some gentle etching.

Regards,
Kai