Warangan

[rasdan]

Hi guys,

Let me start a keris related question in a our new forum mood. I just received a piece of warangan in the size of a thumb. (9 cm long and overall diameter 2.5cm). Question is, how much lime juice do i have to add to the warangan to make a good staining solution? Is there any extra tips? Thanks.

[Paul de Souza]

You have to pound the warangan into a fine power first then add a little to the lime juice solution. The rest is guesstimation or agak-agak since you don't really know what the purity of the wrangan is. Start with a bit and see if there is a reaction to the blade if none add abit more. Reaction does not come immediately and you have to soak the balde in the solution a little while. It takes time and practice. This I get from reading. I am not sure if you have to rinse the blade clean of the solution. It comes from expereince. The best person to advice would be I guess would be Adni.

Please be aware that warangan (arsenic) is very poisonous and that the pounder you use to pound it should not be used to pound food, blacan, whatever after and please wear gloves too.

Test Test..

[Adni Aljunied]

Hi Rasdan.

What's the color of your warangan? Pinkish or orange? Both when pouded will appear white powder, but the pink ones are the more purer. Maybe you can post a picture of the lump of arsenic you got to show others.
A table spoonfull of refined powdered arsenic can be enough to mix with a litre of citric acids, preferably natural lime (green ones) juices that is well filtered.
A catalyst is needed to get the reaction going, and this is done by "sacrificing" a well warangan blade in the solution for an hour or two (make sure that there's no oils or other foreign matter on the blade), and then scrubbed white inside the solution. The solution will darken a little, and be left to "fermentate" for about a week before using. A catalyst can also be a small quantity of matured warangan solution added.
A well matured warangan solution can last very long, but be carefull not to contaminate it by putting uncleaned blades, especailly oily ones or with other non-metallic substances on. A few rust spots on the blade maybe OK, but not too much of rust. As time passes, you may add more lime juices to the "shrinking" solution, but not necessary adding more arsenic.
The whole cleansing process, is very tricky and diffrent blades/metals react diffrently with the solution. Whitening of the blade is also very important to get good contrast, and one has to be a lot systematic when doing this. Even the whether may effect the results, and is best done on a sunny day, under a shade with some breeze.
And as Paul said, be carefull when handling the solution, and althoguh you had many times advise me to use a glove Paul, I still don't, but do have to advsie others to use it. I just cannot have a true feel of the blade when using a glove, as somtimes we have to "massage" the warangan in.
As I've said, it's a tricky process, and it's best to observe first hand how all the steps and done.

[rasdan]

Hi guys,

Thank you very much both of u. I really appreciate the tips. The colour of the warangan is pinkish Adni. I think it is not as pure as the last one that i had. The last one is almost totally pink. However since i dont know the true method of preparing the solution, i had made a silly mistake with that one and it is unusable now. I'll try to get the pictures of the warangan for other forumite next week. Hehehe.. dont worry Paul i'm using a hammer to pound the warangan... and the hammer is not used to pound blachan. hehehe.. Btw i just finished squeezing 5 kg of lime last night. Phewww.. a few lesson learned:

1. 5 kg of lime will make around 1.5 - 1.7 litres of lime juice (after straining).
2. Using blender is no good. U still have to squeeze it afterwards.
3. Squeezing limes (especially green ones) cause sore fingers up to several hours.
4. Getting lime juice in your eyes is... ouch!

Thanks again both of u for the advice.

[Raja Muda]

Pak Rasdan,
Perhaps the best solution to your predicament is to buy a labour saving device - one of those stainless steel lemon squeezers where you squeeze out the juice using a lever, instead of using the good old fashioned kampung way of squeezing by hand. I used to handle one of these working in a fast food joint to make lime juice.
I've seen wooden squeezers as well, if you prefer something traditional in a craft shop in central market.

[Aji™]

Using the lime squeezer would be a good option as it saves much more time and energy but what i would like to suggest is getting those concentrated lime juice that were already squeeze and packed nicely in some supermarkets. BTW where can i obtain those warangan and what does it look like ?

[rasdan]

Hi Aji,

Thanks for the advice. Actually, my friend got the warangan for me in indonesia when he went back there for eid-ul-fitrie. I dont know precisely the shop that he went. However i got the address for a warangan shop in Jakarta.

Pasar Rawa Bening, Toko Joko Tole, Los EC.8-9.

Phone: 021 857859 / 021 856745

I'll try to post the pictures of the warangan tomorrow. Thanks.

[VANDOO]

THE MOST CRITICAL PART FOR SAFTEY MAY BE WHEN YOU POUND THE ARSNIC, I WOULD WEAR A DUST MASK LIKE SURGEONS OR PAINTERS USE. ARSNIC CAN'T BE ABSORBED THRU THE SKIN DEEP ENOUGH TO GET INTO YOUR SYSTEM AND SKIN SHEDS TAKING ANY CONTAMINATION WITH IT. IT CAN GET INTO YOUR SYSTEM BY EATING , BREATHING OR GETTING SOME IN YOUR EYES, CUTS ARE NOT MUCH OF A PROBLEM UNLESS YOU LIKE TO SOAK YOUR HANDS FOR LONG PERIODS. GOOD LUCK

[rasdan]

Hi guys,

Heres the pictures of the warangan.

[Aji™]

Thank you very much guys for those valuable information.