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#1 |
Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 88
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Selamat pagi all,
Bought a new keris in Jakarta a few months ago (my first) and decided to carefully sharpen it up. I know you're not supposed to do that with a keris, but being a student of Minangkabau silat and a knife aficionado of sorts, I thought it would be a good idea to give the keris a cutting edge. I managed to scrape off a tiny amount of the black stain and decided to try and maranggi the keris again using Thai limes and red warangan, but my results have been far from satisfactory. I used a toothbrush and applied coat after coat of the mixture over the last week, and all I got was a brown liquid residue, reminiscent of rust. I also tried to slap some onto a Valiantco tumbuk lada, and it has turned grey, but the forging marks are clearly apparent. Earlier today I tried scrubbing the warangan into the keris repeatedly after washing it, and it removed the brown residue and also turned the keris more grey than the paintbrush method had. I was hoping someone could give me some advice onto how to turn this keris back to the beautiful black it once was. Should I just keep scrubbing the warangan in? If I stop, the wilah starts to turn brown. I've read through every thread on here with any mention of warangan and arsenic, but I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I'm a little worried this keris may be composed entirely of nickel! |
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#2 |
Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 88
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Here are some pictures of the keris and the tumbuk lada. Hopefully this one isn't a keris-like object like the Batak souvenir I picked up...
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#3 |
Keris forum moderator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Nova Scotia
Posts: 7,084
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Well first of all the obvious...you shouldn't have done that.
![]() ![]() Keris rarely have a "cutting edge". It is a stabbing weapon, not a slasher. Sharpen a keris in this way just isn't done. I think that you might want to try to get a hold of some lab grade arsenic trioxide if you can find it. I think you will get better results. Also, how did you prep the blade before applying the warangan? Did you clean the whole blade back to "white" before proceeding? I doubt that your keris is all nickel for many reasons, but mostly because you report that it was once black so iron must be present. ![]() |
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#4 |
Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 88
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Hi David, and thanks for the response. Yes, I know you're never supposed to sharpen a keris, but some do have sharp edges, right? I keep mine by the door in a blawong and I wanted to know it would actually be usable if I ever had to pick it up, since I'm not really interested in weapons that can't be used in real life.
![]() The lab grade As2O3 might be a little harder to locate than realgar, but I'll see what I can do. Maybe I should just get it restained on my next trip to Indonesia--It's only US $200 roundtrip from Hong Kong on Garuda. I thoroughly cleaned the blade with lime juice and detergent before drying it thoroughly with a hair dryer, and it was a clear white except for a few patches which would not give up the stain on them (and I can't figure out why). Is it possible this keris was stained with something else besides warangan? The seller got back to me and said it was done with 'black warangan,' which doesn't tell me much. It is possible to turn nickel black with other substances and even heat treating, correct? The ganja does appear to have been made in a sandwich so I'm guessing the wilah is too... BTW, any comments on the keris guys? ![]() |
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#5 |
Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 88
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Here's what it looked like new:
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#6 | ||||
Keris forum moderator
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Nova Scotia
Posts: 7,084
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#7 | ||||
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 88
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#8 | |
Vikingsword Staff
Join Date: Nov 2004
Posts: 6,284
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Your keris is new work most likely; not really meant for fighting .. Get a new warangan job in Indo for the naga . "Usable ?" This would be more up your alley then . ![]() |
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#9 | |
Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 88
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![]() That's a lovely keris. Bugis or Sumatran, right? |
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