Winter Project

[Spunjer]

yo jose, yeah it's pitted where the rust accumulated, but i kinda expected that. my main concern was the rust eating right thru the thinner part like the pointy part of the gangya but fortunately it didn't.

question tho: any suggestion on how to polish this part? i'm using a nut picker to pick on the remaining crust.

[Rick]

What do you mean by polish, Ron ?
Remove the pits ?

Nice pickin' .

[Spunjer]

hi rick,
basically just to smooth-en the pitted area.

[Battara]

1. keep picking (not your nose though )

2. what I mean by polish is using the different types of sandpaper,hard to soft.

We can email if you need more info......

[Spunjer]

well, so much for winter project! i got so obsessed with this kris
that i just have to see the end result.
first the scabbard:
my first thought was repairing it to the point were every crack is
puttied, but as i put it together and i begun to see her true form, i
decided to leave some of her more obvious flaws as it added character
to her complete form.



one of the biggest chips that was missing was the right below the
crosspiece. patching it would've been redundant since there were
obviously other parts that were missing ( a couple of nails and nail
holes on the band) that i have no idea what their purposes were.





as far as the band is concerned, i just tried to straightened it out
as much as i can by using a ball peen hammer and long nose pliers
since it was really thin and didn't wanna risk breaking a piece.. i
wanted to preserve the beautiful okir that's on it. to clean this part
i just used mild dish soap and warm water, then a coat of wax to
retain the patina. as for the rest of the scabbard, my original plan
was to re-stain it but decided to leave it as it is. so again, dish
soap and warm water was all i used, and liberally rubbed it with
renaissance wax. the nicks and scratches on it really added some
serious character:

[Spunjer]

now on the sword:
this is indeed one of the most beautiful kris i've ever handled.
whoever was the original owner must've been a very influential person!
every part of it was lavished to the hilt! to start of with the
handle. early on, i noticed swaasa on the pommel. notice how the beak
on the kakatua was accentuated with swaasa, and so were the
rectangular portion on each side and a strip running from the beak to
the tail.




i can see excellent okir bands on the handle, and after cleaning it
up, her true beauty popped out. not only was it meticulously put
together it also appeared that it has swaasa on it, alternated with
silver filigreed band, creating a beautiful contrast:




here's the view of the full handle. i don't think there was a band between the last ring and the pommel, but if there was, it disappeared a while back since the exposed wood looks like it has some age on it:

[Spunjer]

the blade was the worst part, especially around gangya area, as it was
caked with rust. one of my biggest concern was around the greneng. i
was worried that since it's one of the thinnest part, the rust
would've ate through it, but luckily it didn't. although it was
pitted, it was intact. as one can see, it's a simple design, common
for her age.



as far as the katik, it was heavily corroded. luckily it wasn't deep
enough to ruin anything, except for the obvious pits (the reddish tint is a reflection of my shirt):



there was really no sense in smoothing the pitted area, since i would
have to use some serious power tool to smoothen the area, so i just
left it as it is:



notice the inlays. most of the stars were intact. what was missing
were most of the two linear inlays that originally run along the
length of the blade, ending on the naga's head. fortunately, six of
the star inlays remained by the tip accentuating it.