Balinese keris bilah color

[David]

Originally Posted by Anthony G.

Hi

I got this Balinese keris months ago and it looks like this 'green'. I can said that I itchy hand and test something on it and eventually the bilah turns metal (silver) color.

Can vinegar brings back the original color form? I try to use artificial vinegar but it does not works that well. Maybe I do the wrong way.

Also, I cannot find any answers on the net. Any idea why some Balinese keris bilah color are black and some are this color of mine?

Thanks

Anthony, it is difficult for me to see how green your blade appears from your photo. I do see a green tinge, but also know that color balance in digital photography can at times not portray true colors when you want them.
I must say that i had no idea what you mean by "artificial vinegar" so i googled it. Both seem to be acetic acid, but from different sources. I don't know what effect that might have on color though. To be safe you might want to stick to natural vinegar.
The reason your blade is not "black" is because the last stain has worn off over the years. This does not mean that it cannot be stained to a near black appearance if you clear and re-stain the blade. But a vinegar bath by itself will not restore a rich, dark color to the iron in your blade. For that you must use warangan (arsenic and lime juice) after the cleaning.
Staining Bali blades and getting something close to an original Bali treatment can be difficult even when you have warangan. Bali blades were also re-polished in the process so they generally don't have the rougher, more topographical surface that you find on properly maintained Javanese blades. That is why if i have an old Bali blade that has some decent remainder of original stain left on it i generally do not try to re-stain them as i would rather preserved that original stain. I can't really tell much from your one photo here, but it does not look like a significant amount of that original Bali stain is still there. So this might be a blade that you want to clean. But be aware that the vinegar alone will not really help produce a strong contrast with the pamor of your blade though it may still leave the pamor visible.