It is perhaps wise to "kill" any possibility of acid remaining on a blade, other people in the West who clean rusted artefacts with acid do recommend this, & I sometimes do it, sometimes not.
I've pretty much stopped doing it with keris, because for a while now I have immediately followed the clean by staining, & I'm only doing 1 or 2 blades at a time, however, with damascus I have always done it, & I continue to use bicarbonate of soda as a neutralising agent after an acid clean or stain of damascus.
I really don't think it is absolutely necessary with keris & similar artefacts, but recently I have taken to washing keris & etc with dishwash liquid under running warm water, using a soft toothbrush.
In fact, I do not follow hard & fast rules, & I do not treat any of this stuff as if it were rocket science, I do things as I feel about the object.
|