I can confirm Detlev's advise; without any decent restoration, read even only a little cleaning, these lovely knives will only deteriote and leave you at the end with "pulverized" pieces of what once was a nice dagger.
I showed some of mine Congolese ones to a professional who does provide his services to the likes of Sotheby's and the like and he did indeed advised me the same as "uncle" Detlev does.
If you do not want to go for the full Monthy, thst's OK but some natural uncolored oil will do the job and you will be delighted by the result, for sure !
I did it to 2 scarification knives and a Zande sword.
best regards
Gunar
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