Yeah, lots of people can't find kenanga. It is available from essential oil suppliers in Australia.I know a bloke who runs a pretentious little shop that sells Asian dreams. He sometimes has it, next time I see him I'll ask where he gets it. He might tell me, if its not the wrong time of the month.
The whole point of minyak cendana, or mawar, or anything else, is just for the smell. It doesn't do anything at all for preservation. If preservation is all we're interested in, use a good gun oil--- smells bad, but it works well.
So if you want to cut the proportions of cendana, or cut it out altogether, it really doesn't matter. Ordinary light machine oil is a good preservative too, something like sewing machine oil.
As to sandalwood oil staining the blade, never seen this happen. I've been using my mix now for about 30 years, and I've never seen the warangan go bad because of the oil.
Actually, the best way to preserve your blade is by oiling and then putting the oiled blade into a light plastic sleeve. In Indonesia you can buy rolls of plastic of various widths and thicknesses---its used for making little plastic bags for food, you get it from the plastic shops (toko plastik) ---just cut a length of this and slip the oiled blade into it, then twist it tight around the blade before putting the blade back in the wrongko. Stops the wrongko getting oil stained, stops the oil drying out. Don't know where to buy this stuff in Australia, but plastic sandwich wrap works pretty good too.
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