i use petroleum jelly

to keep the blade from rusting. the locals use pomade (the ones that come in small satchets) but i don't like my blade to smell like elvis' hair.
as to the way the locals do their etching, they use crushed
kamias aka
iba fruits - the long ones and not the rounded ones. these are packed inside a bamboo that has the same length and size of the blade. the blade then is left buried under the crushed kamias until the etched patterns shows up.