Question about preserving a keris

[shadejoy]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Pande Made Gede Suardika is a known keris-smith, he would be about 50 years old now. He is located in Den Pasar.

His work is known as being quite heavy, his garap is known as being detailed & neat. His pamor is known as being well managed, but he specialises in pamor mlumah, not pamor miring. I have never heard of him making pamor miring.

I am quite surprised that he was able to produce this very complex pamor miring back in 2014. It would seem that in spite of him being so well known he is inclined to hide his light under a bushel.

@A.G. Maisey, I wasn't aware of his specialty. In fact I had never seen his prior work. It does sound like you know more about Bli Pande than I do. If anything, it shows how vast your network/connection is in Nusantara, which is not limited to Java..

I only knew Bli Pande based on articles and that he was well-known for producing pusaka rather than commercial. He did ask me about the purpose and intentions of getting the Keris. The Keris that he made for me was obviously not intended for temples therefore it was treated differently. But still followed Balinese cultural and traditions like picking the best day, offerings, rituals etc. I intend to keep my Keris as family heirloom which was probably why he accepted my order.

Noted on the silver foam and the pre-cleaning. I only will use it on the wide smooth surface area of the pendok. I will use the cloth for any silver carvings.

@Bob A Thank you for sharing. Interesting product albeit the mild odor. I want to say that although I'm a bit skeptical about the presence of other being resided in an object but I do keep my mixture of odorless gun oil (85%) with Cananga (10%) and Jasmine oil (5%). As @A.G. Maisey suggested, ..it's tradition.

Though I part way with tradition of annual cleaning and jamasan. It is my understanding that warangan and its process eat away ferric. It's acidic. So I tend to limit the procedure, only as needed or none at all if possible. Which led me to an idea of separating the wilah, by itself ,and store it in a vacuum-sealed bag after oiling for longer preservation.