It's the same old story

[Rick]

That's what I meant to illustrate; maybe the positive effect shown ( see bottom picture) would be caused by Arsenic .

With Arsenic the iron goes black instead of the result I got with ferric .

I see uler lulut (albeit a loose one) Marco .

Of course if this keris is Balinese the pamor may be called differently there .

[Marcokeris]

Originally Posted by Rick

Of course if this keris is Balinese the pamor may be called differently there .

Rante ,Sapta Resi

[Rick]

I meant there may be a Balinese word or term for this pamor rather than Javanese .

[A. G. Maisey]

Rick, you have still darkened the ferric material, exactly as you would have had you used warangan, the difference is that it is simply not as dark.

I've made damascus blades that incorporated mild steel + 01 + nickel, and I've stained them with ferric chloride. The end result is very similar to what we see in a keris blade.

If the pamor is high phosphorus content iron, then you're going to get a dark grey, light grey effect from ferric chloride, but if there is nickelous content, the nickel bearing material will still not be effected by the ferric chloride.

[Rick]

Now I'm confused Alan,
Warangan would turn the core of this keris black; no ?
Why then does the ferric render it as lighter than the pamor material ?
The first ferric stain was quite muddy .










BTW; did we decide an origin for this keris; E. Jawa, Bali ?










Is it my technique ?

[A. G. Maisey]

I don't know what origin this blade is. I could give you half a dozen guesses, but without it in my hand , none would have a lot of value.

Rick, the way it works is this:- the ferric chloride will darken all ferric material, that means it will darken the iron, and it will darken the steel.

It will not darken any nickel.

If the pamor in this blade is comprised of varying types of iron, say a high phosphorus iron and a low phosphorus iron, as well as some steel, the colour variation will reflect the varying effect that the ferric chloride has on the different types of ferric material.

As to what effect warangan would have, that depends entirely on the person doing the job and the warangan:- you could get a similar effect to the one you have achieved by using warangan---or more precisely, by under using it.

Ferric chloride will give you a muddy result if there are any little specks of rust anywhere on the blade.
If you overdo it, it will darken everything a lot.
It is easy to overdo it, with ferric chloride I usually work in front of a running tap, wash off quickly as soon as the colour comes up, kill it with a bicarb slurry, then I polish the blade with worn out 1200W&D, sometimes with 0000steel wool.

Quite frankly, this blade looks OK to me. Maybe I'd give it a whisker more colour, but its quite OK as it is.

[Rick]

Ahh, okay .
The first etch came out muddy .
I neutralized the etch w/a baking soda slurry.
Then I hit the blade with a hot Lime etch which cleaned a lot of the mud off .
After that a quick etch with ferric, possibly 10 distilled x 1 FECL mix at room temp .

The pattern came out fast and I stopped it before it got too dark .
Call me a wimp; see if I care .

What kind of dress would be proper for this keris ?
It came with the standard (but good) 'Bali Tourist Dress' .

[asomotif]

Rick,

Indeed, the core is light, while that should become 'black'.

Never the less, for some home experiences I think that you created a nice finish. I don't really like the black javanese look on balinese keris anyway.

Best regards
Willem

[Rick]

Thanks Gentlemen .
I guess I'll work on the sarong to improve the fit a little; then I'll reassemble it .
I think it's an older fairly high quality (materials) forging; maybe tempered .
It has a nice voice though maybe not the best workmanship .

Another stain recipe :

Sulphur
Salt
Lemon juice .