It's that time of the year in the Tropics again...

[BluErf]

Yep, I'm talking about the MONSOON season! Keris collectors living in the Tropics should dread this season, because it marks the beginning of rust, mould and clammy-feeling sheaths and hilts.

How about let's talk about various methods of preventing/inhibiting those evil processes that eat away our precious collection?

Let me start with my experience. I used to stay in the extreme west of Singapore. I kept my kerises in singeps and place them in a wooden cupboard, with 3-4 packs of pellet dehumidifiers, and change them promptly when they are near their absorption capacity. Even though the cupboard was not very air-tight, somehow the combination of the wood, the fabric singep and the dehumdifiers worked to prevent mould and rust in most kerises. For some reasons, some kerises (perhaps due to worn off finishing), are still susceptible to mould on the exterior and, more dreadedly, the inside of the sheath. This in turn led to some rust if not cleaned off in time.

Cleaning mould off the exterior is easy. The tougher part comes when we try to clean the interior. I don't have a good way, so I use a brush or sometimes even tissue (careful not to leave tissue residues inside the sheath!). I thought about using a blower, but that could make things worse by blowing the spores further down the batang.

Oiling and cleaning the keris is easy enough provided you don't let it rust due to the mould. But I would take care to bring out the kerises only on a relatively dry and hot day, which is not many during the Monsoon seaon.

And then, I moved to extreme East of Singapore 2 years ago...

I did not have the benefit of the wooden cupboard anymore, and could only store my kerises, outside of their singep, in 2 steel cabinets in the bomb shelter which has terrible ventilation. Humidity builds up and you get a musky smell. Fellow Singaporeans living in newer apartments should find this familiar...

Anyhow, the first year was traumatic! The pellet humidifiers didn't work, even in large quantities. A small electric dehumidifier was not effective and conked out after 3 months. Kerises which did not rust before started rusting! (Luckily not my most precious few )

I sealed all the inlets into the bomb shelter and plonked in an industrial strength dehumdifier (ok, a small one) which could regulate humidity at a preset level (I set it at 65%; 60% was too dry, causing shrinkage in some sheaths!). It took months for the air in the bomb shelter to stabilize. And now for my more important pieces, I also wrap the blades in thin plastic after I oil them, and keep them in the Singep. So far so good! The only thing is that I have to bring them out once in a while to 'air', to oil the wooden parts and let them reabsorb some moisture from the air. But of course, I'm reluctant to do so during the Monsoon season because there is simply too much humidity in the air! Will see how things turn out come February...