I’ve just found some videos on warangan making and using

[Anthony G.]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Actually, in Javanese, a "babon" is a hen (ie, chicken, chook) that has laid eggs. I think it can also be used to refer to any female animal that has reproduced, but I'm not sure about this.

But it definitely is a laying hen.

All this alchemy is totally, absolutely, completely different to what I have seen in Jawa, & what I use myself.

The first time I saw a Javanese gentleman doing blade staining, he started cold, he had nothing ready at all, I had three or four dirty, rusty blades and I had 4 hours or so before my train left Jogja.

The m'ranggi sent one of his kids to the market to buy some limes, a couple of brushes & some warangan. When the required materials arrived the m'ranggi crushed the warangan in his wife's kitchen mortar --- the same one she used to prepare food --- but he lined it first with a bit of plastic, he did not bother to cover the pestle with plastic though.

He juiced the limes, strained them, then brushed the lime juice onto the blades repeatedly for around half an hour & removed as much rust & filth as he could, it was not a perfect job, but he had limited time.

Before he started the cleaning he had already mixed the powdered warangan with some lime juice --- about as much powder as would cover a man's thumb nail, and about two egg-cups of lime juice, the result was a suspension, not a mixture.

He repeatedly brushed the suspension of warangan & lime juice into both sides of the blades, as the blade colour came up, he would rinse off the warangan, pat dry with a cloth and lay the blades in the sun until thoroughly dry.

This process was repeated a number of times until I had to leave to catch my train.

The blades were passably stained and the m'ranggi told me --- through an interpreter, I could not speak BI or Javanese back then --- that I should repeat what I saw him do in about 12 months, and keep doing it from time to time until the job was perfect.

The man who did this was the abdi dalem who was responsible for the maintenance of the Sultan of Ngayogyakarta's pusakas.

That was more than 50 years ago. Since then I have seen a lot of people stain blades, and I've stained more than a few myself. The basic process is the same as I have just outlined.

Commercial warangan jobs are done differently, and generally speaking these commercial jobs do use a soak method and the stain produced is vastly inferior to the process I have just described.

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This process was repeated a number of times until I had to leave to catch my train.

The blades were passably stained and the m'ranggi told me --- through an interpreter, I could not speak BI or Javanese back then --- that I should repeat what I saw him do in about 12 months, and keep doing it from time to time until the job was perfect.


OMG! It is for sure a tedious process. I didn't know they actually have to do it many a times until it yields good results on the bilah.

Me and my itchy hand, after watching youtube videos; thinking I can also do it. And eventually end up having 2 good keris without warangan on the bilah. If only I could turn back the clock. I learnt the lesson a hard way was that leave it to the professional. There are many clowns doing video, passing off as experts in the internet world. Recently I also tried to repair my violin bow tip BUT after speaking to Alan and also a good pal who is good with his hand, I decided otherwise and send to a luthier to fix it, spend $, yes but at least the item came back properly fixed.

[A. G. Maisey]

Not always as tedious as my description sounds Anthony. Sometimes you can get a passably decent stain on an old blade with vinegar and a bit of brushing.

On the other hand, this keris is one that I made, to get a decent stain on this it took me two full days, most of the time working in full sun in the middle of summer.