touching up a blade with gun blue pen

[milandro]

I understand that this is probably against any normal practice but any norm knows exceptions so bear with me and stay positive i am only asking for technical advise.

I have a Bugis style keris which I like in many ways. The blade is not what one would probably identify as typical for a Bugis keris but I like it and it is what it is anyway. My question is about an area of the pamor where there appears to be a large chunk of nickel(?) only on one side.

I was wandering whether applying gun blue with a felt pen would be a good idea to darken this are even further. In the end it is what it is, but I feel that It would look nicer if it were a dark area rather then being a light hue.

[Jean]

The blade does not look Bugis indeed and the shiny spot seems to be a manufacturing defect which may have been filled after completing the blade? I won't touch it personally.

[milandro]

I have touched it up with a different product than gun blue and it looks a lot better now.

The question for me remains whether it would be any better with gun blue

[David]

Well, that isn't anything that i would do personally. You say "I like it and it is what it is anyway". If that is the case you should leave it as is. I have never heard of coving up pamor because you don't like the look if the bright spot. So what you are asking seems very strange to me.
I cannot tell much about this blade from this close up. Can you provide a photo of the entire blade?

[milandro]

I was asking a strictly metallurgical question limited to the use of gun blue, as I stated in post 1
never mind, thanks

[David]

Originally Posted by milandro

I was asking a strictly metallurgical question limited to the use of gun blue, as I stated in post 1
never mind, thanks

Well Milandro, we are a forum of keris collectors, not metallurgists. You can't expect to ask a question like this without some head scratching on our part.

[A. G. Maisey]

Purely metallurgical?

OK.

I own & use a number of firearms, and have owned rifles for seventy odd years and during that course of time I have needed to touch up firearm bluing more times than I can remember.

In my experience cold blue, I normally use Birchwood Casey, will only act on ferric material, it will not darken nickel plating, thus I do not believe it will darken pure nickel on a keris blade.

However, an artist friend tells me that nitric acid @ 50% dilution will darken nickel, you need to get the nickel a bit warm, +/-50C, soak the nickel for up to 30 seconds. She is an artist, and she does SOAK the material in the dilute nitric acid, not paint it on.

Frankly I would not touch nitric acid with a 40 foot pole, it is very nasty stuff, and my belief is that it would be impossible to isolate the effect of the acid so that it only touched the nickel in the blade leaving the ferric material untouched. I think the fumes alone would be sufficient to adversely affect the rest of the blade finish.

To be clear:- I am not recommending the use of nitric acid for anything, least of all to attempt to alter the appearance of this blade under discussion.

[milandro]

thank you for your, to my point, answer, after looking at several videos on Youtube , and reading this, I’ve decided against it.

[A. G. Maisey]

Very wise I think.

[milandro]

while I thank you again for your to-the-point answer ( and by the way , methinks that there are plenty of metallurgic points made in several threads that I’ve read, as for example about on how to etch blades ) I have learned to appreciate and perhaps even love this blade.

I like the way the light catches and reflects on this spot, it goes from light to deep dark, as you move the kris creating a very vivid effect.

Intended or not it lives now, and it lives with me. I have abandoned any retouching desire. there is , of course, no account for taste and I have no doubt that people will disagree

[David]

Originally Posted by milandro

( and by the way , methinks that there are plenty of metallurgic points made in several threads that I’ve read, as for example about on how to etch blades )

I believe that you may have misinterpreted what i was saying in regards to "head scratching". Of course we have discussed metallurgic points in many threads on this forum. And i wasn't suggesting that no one could help answer your question here (and Alan Maisey is probably the most well informed amongst us to do so). The head scratching i was referring to is why you would want to cover this area of nickel up in the first place. Especially if it was accidental instead of intentional. Accidental pamors in keris would be considered "Acts of God". Not something i would image any Indonesian keris owner would choose to mess with.

[milandro]

I am very much aware of the way people over there look at these things and , in fact , you may remember my quote in another thread

Originally Posted by milandro

...
I understand that a western blacksmith would chuck the blade BUT an Indonesian empuh probably, beside not throwing away some work done, he probably thinks that the process is only partly in his hands and that he is rather the instruments of a superior being that through him creates the blade and maks it inhabited by a spirit and gives the blade its properties....
.

[A. G. Maisey]

Milandro, there is usually a wide gap between what a craftsman might think, and what the general public might think.

In the case of the crafts associated with the keris, this gap seems to me to be inordinately wide.

[David]

Originally Posted by milandro

I am very much aware of the way people over there look at these things and , in fact , you may remember my quote in another thread

Nope, i'm afraid i don't remember that quote from another thread, but i am glad you are aware of this.

[David]

This keris has gone back up for sale so i am closing this thread for the time being.