Bali Keris

[Mick]

Gentlemen

I do not consider myself an expert in regard to the keris and I do not mean to start an argument amongst the members of the Forum, but we have had discussions in the past about the colorations of the keris after treatment with warangan. It was noted that a possible cause for different colors was impurities in the warangan. I suggest that the differences are possibly due to at least two reasons. One being the characteristics of the “iron” that the keris is made from and the other impurities in the warangan. Other factors are possibly the temperature of the warangan solution during the process and the length of time that the solution was left on the blade. (Leaving the blade in the solution too long will even turn the nickel bearing material black which is in itself a specific form of a Javanese finish.)

I have a dozen or so Balinese kerises. All of them except for the one shown in this thread were patinated in Bali while I was present on the island. The oldest of these (I make this assumption because the pamor is adeg which is laid out in luks and the piece has been washed and polished so many times that the luks themselves are practically nonexistent) shows the dark gray base that Battara mentions in his post. Others have colors that range from dark black through the almost gun blue finish that BluErf mentions. In fact some of them range from black, dark blue, brown and up to and including a golden color in the base material of the same piece. (That is the material other than the nickel bearing material.)

I cannot say that the patinating of this blade was done in Bali. I can only say what I requested that the individual to whom I sent the blade was to do with it. I do know that he passed the blade down to Bali in order to have the scabbard made and he even had a different grip and mendak made and installed before he sent the ensemble back to me.

Due to these variations in the final colors of Balinese kerises that I know of as facts, I am extremely reluctant to get into a contest regarding the judging of the proper color for the patination of a Balinese keris.

[Boedhi Adhitya]

Congratulations, Mick. You have a really fine Bali keris. It certainly portrayed Balinese smith's mastery. About the etching, well, it is properly etch. But, judging from a very limited pictures, IMHO, it hasn't reach it's best appearance, though I wish I'm wrong.

A Balinese keris devotee (who indeed a Balinese and stay in Denpasar, Bali) told me, today average traditional Balinese would only "sangling" (polishing) their blade and leave it in metalic-white condition. Etching (marangi = to etch with warangan), considered as "re-introduced" by Javanese. I know some Surabaya/East Java peoples who opened the shop/workshop in Klungkung, and also etch and repair the blades. I do not know the Bali's court practices on keris maintenance today or in the past, though. But I have some experience on keris' etching here, in Jogjakarta.

Basically, there are 2 methods on applying warangan to the blade. The most common is immersing the blade in warangan solution, used to be practised by "profesional etcher". The second is brushing the solution onto the blade, exclusively done in Jogjakarta court. The result is considerably different.

Before etched, the blade must be cleaned from oil, rust and old etch. Traditionally, it is done by brushing the lime juice for many times, using "bubat", a traditional brush made of horse tail. Today, we may use toothbrush instead. This process called "methak" (=pethak=putih=white, to make the blade white clean), and best being done in early morning or a night before, since the sun's heat will dry the juice easily. No polishing in Jogjakarta's court tradition. Villagers may polish their blade with pulverized adobe brick. Bad "profesional etcher" would use HCl or H2SO4, which may ruin the blade. Heavily corroded blade should be immersed in ripe-coconut water, at least for a day and night.

After the blade is stainless-steel white, it is immersed or brushed in/with warangan solution, wait a minute or two, pick the blade and clean the blade with fresh water/soap. The first immersion/brushing would only make the blade slightly gray. This proces repeated for several times, until the black and white contrast appeared as the etcher think as "proper". It is VERY important to clean all traces of warangan solution, since the lime juice acidity would cause rust. Unproperly cleaned blade would show some yellowish to brown spot or has a greeny appearance, called "ngadal ijo" (=looks like green lizard). A pale black or gray with not-so-contrast pamor (caused by etching, not material used to make the blade) called "welu" (=looks like someone who just wake up from his bed). Ngadal ijo and welu might also caused by rotten/ruined/too aged warangan solution or unproper "methak" process. Some, though, caused by the iron and pamor material used, that would show a low grade blade. This blade usually made of porous iron/pamor material. Please be carefull not to mix keris blade with copper alloy/brass inlay with other plain keris. Brass/copper alloy will be dissolved to the warangan and then tainted other blade with ugly, copper-red patches. It may also ruin the warangan. Gold inlay would be OK

Properly etched blade colour in traditional Jogjakarta fashion should show some gradation/nuance/hue, from smooth bluish black on iron, black on steel, and deep gray to stainless steel white on pamor. Not a nearly pure "black-and-white" finish. It adds a lot on "living" appearrance of the blade, called "guwaya". Immersion method though, would show less hue. Just remember, the material quality used to make the blade would also play an important role here. Remember also, the etch would change it's color from time to time. For the first week, it may getting darker. Then when it "settle-down", it will keep it's color for years, approx. 4-6 years. Best one could keep it's color for 8-12 years. After that, it may discolor and became grayish. But the hue still maintained

Warangan is a Javanese traditional name for arsenic mineral, probably realgar. The best natural warangan is imported from China, which today may cost approx. 2 million rupiahs for 100g (approx. 200$). "Warangan apotik" (apotik=drugstore) is As2O3, a highly toxic material that could be use as substitute. One and a half teaspoon of warangan powder would enough for a glassful of lime juice, approx 200ml (just don't drink it ! Mr. Munir, may he rest in peace, an Indonesian Human right activist, had showed us the bad effect. His assasination cause the arsenic's price rocketed ). This solution may enough to etch 10-20 kerises in brushing technique, depend mostly on the etcher "habit" (a glass of warangan solution wouldn't enough for immersion technique). The lime juice also play important part. It is "Java lime" which is used, and the skin should be pelled of priorly.

Warangan solution should be prepared at least a day before in brushing technique. Immersion use an aged solution, so the solution should be prepared at least three days before, a week would be better. Brushing technique use mainly fresh or not-to-old solution mixed with a little aged solution. The brushing should be done under shaded sunlight, best around 10.00-12.00 under bright-sunny day. Contrary, immersion method use mainly a bucket-full of aged solution, and could be done day and night. The fresh warangan solution would look milky white if arsenic is used, or slightly pale red if realgar is used. Aged warangan look brownish to black, the older the darker and sometimes thicken slightly. Old rusty nails could be added to fresh ones to make the aging process quicken. Keep the solution away from oil, soap and copper alloy. And children, indeed

I personally etch my kerises in brushing technique with arsenic solution. Every etcher would have their own "understanding" on the process and thus may have a slightly different "favourite" technique. But it is the result, not the process, that would be appreciated (as long as no "destructive" technique used, of course). Wish I give some information here, especially for those DIY fans

Best regards,

Boedhi Adhitya

[Mick]

Thank you Boedhi Adhitya. Your input to this Forum (across the board) is just what the members of this Forum are seeking. I have been placing objects up for years attempting to get people to provide real information on the topic of the Keris in the hope of getting the type of dialog that you are providing written into the pages of the Forum. We have often gotten some informants started in this direction, but have bogged down when ego problems entered into the discussions. I have to commend you for avoiding this morass so far and hope that you continue.

I wish to add my compliments to those of the other members who have thanked you for providing excellent material to the Forum from someone who actually lives within the culture which contains this icon.

[nechesh]

Thank you Boedhi Adhitya, another fine and informative post. I must disagree with you on one point though, the brush on method is not exclusive to the Jogjakarta court. I use this method myself in the Midwest USA.
BTW, here is a link to an old thread which gives direction to the same method, but perhaps with slightly different details: http://www.vikingsword.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000717.html
One thing i have found is that it is important, at least where i live, to use only bottled distilled water during the process. Perhaps it's the floride in the tap water or other minerals or metals, but when i first tried this with tap water i got stange golden stains. I just did some blades this past weekend with distilled water and the results were pretty good. I think other things that might effect the final staining color (aside from the type of irons used in the blade) are extreme temperatures or humidity levels. I have been using As2O3 since i never knew where to get realgar in this country. It is indeed very toxic as you say, but still very safe if you use your head (i.e. keep your fingers out of your mouth ). I bought a gram a few years ago and i still have almost half that left after about four or five rounds of staining. It cost $50 back then ($25 for the gm and a $25 dangerous materials handling fee) so it's a bit more expensive that the realgar. For those interested in how to obtain some, i googled arsenic trioxide and started making calls to some big chemical companies customer service depts. They won't, of course, sell to a private citizen like myself, but i did find a company that was willing to give me the names of companies local to my area that they ARE allowed to sell to. After a bit of yellow pages research and a few more phone calls i finally found a local company that was willing to make the purchase for me. I was very up front and described the exact purpose and process that i required the arsenic for. When it arrived i when to their locale and picked it up. I know it all sound pretty complicated, but in practice it really wasn't all that difficult. It is possible that i was just lucky.
Boedhi Adhitya, you mention gold not being affected by the warangan. Are you certain this is so? I have an unstained keris that has what i am fairly sure is gold foil overlay. I would love to raise the pamor on this blade but was uncertain what effect the arsenic would have on the gold. It was suggested to me to try covering the gold with clear nail polish for the procedure. Are you saying this is not necessary, that the gold won't turn color?
Thank you for your help on this. Each time i do this process i get better and better results and i am sure that with your added tips my staining can only improve further.

[Boedhi Adhitya]

To thank you very much, Mick, and all forumities, for the compliment. I personally felt that this compliment should not be addressed to me, but to my elderly "gurus" and fellow keris' devotees. I'm just conveying a little bit of knowledge and experience that I thought I have, and just in thirst to learn more. I'm happy to see that my posts would "make senses" to many forumities. I would ask all the forumities though, to remind me if I'm wrong or out of the line.

Nechesh, I'm very glad that you are able to stain/etch the blade. Even in Java, only a few collectors are able to properly do it. It takes patient and a lot of practices to master. It also takes times, and time is money. But I urge any serious keris collectors to master this skill because traditionally, it is the owner himself who should maintain/clean his pusakas
My claim that brushing technique only practised in Jogja is false then. (And I'm really glad I'm false in this case ). It based mainly on my observation in Java that most, if not all, "professional etcher" use the immersion technique, simply because it's more efficient and cost effective while working on a lot of blades.

As long as I recall, gold inlay would not be affected by warangan solution. I have personally etched some kerises/spearheads with gold inlay, and it's okay. The color of gold would only came brighter . Until today, I've not heard nor seen any gold inlay being affected/ruined by warangan from my fellow collector/etcher. Remember though, I (and many etcher I know), use undilluted Citrus aurantifolia juices (key lime, according to Wikipedia or limau/jeruk nipis in indonesia/malay). Don't forget to cleanly peel off all the lime's skins for all processes (methak or making solution). It contains some oil which may make the blade yellowish, and thus may also ruin the solution. Use yellowish ripe limes only, not a green ones. 1kg of good, ripe limes will give approx. 1 liter juice.
Just be careful on brushing or you will peel off those gold foil. I personally use 1" paintbrush to apply the warangan. Just cut the brush a little to make it stiffer. Toothbrush would be only used on "methak" and washing-the-warangan's process. Water, indeed, play an important part. I also observed that tap water which may contain some fluoride do make the blade slightly yellowish. Well water is better for me. Distillated would be the best, but may cost me more. As long as you follow this "old recipee", I bet you are on the save side

You may buy realgar on traditional chinese's drugstore, if you manage to find one. Scientifically, arsenikum called 'Shen' in chinese. Commoners will call it 'Bi Shuang' (pee -soo-ang). Chinese traditional physician/medicine man would called it 'Hung Sin Se' for red realgar (the ones you should buy) or 'Pai Sin Se' for white (?) one. I'm not a chinese nor speak mandarin language. Just my fellow collector told me. My friends also told me that common realgar trading on traditional market in China has been banned, since some criminals used it on poisoning peoples. So, it might be a little bit harder to find, but the fact that it is still exist in Indonesia today surely suggest that it is still possible to find it. Realgar should be the first choice for etching kerises since it is much safer and, some say, gives more "live' to the blade. Just pick a good, orange-red/pink to deep purple crystal ones. Anyway, Jogjakarta court use As2O3 in their heirlooms cleansing ceremony

Thank's for the link, Nechesh. Wong Desa knew what he was talking about. It is right that you couldn't have the best appearance on the first shot, especially on a long-time abandoned and corroded blade. It takes 2-3 times. Just let 1 or 2 months in between to let the warangan "react" more, and pick the "dirt" from the keris' pores. Putting some more oils and keep it wet would also help the process. Just keep the oil away from the sheath or ivory handle or it will stain the sheath/handle.

wish may help.

[purwacarita]

To say it old is one thing, Boedhi said it, because of sangling, old Balinese keris could not be like yours. But to say it beautiful is the thing because it is truly beautiful. A work of fine art, sOuo ...dynamic. WF !! I've some pieces original from Bali, this one, I think, was made from Java. The compliments shall be to those masters from Javanese. My deep respects.

[nechesh]

Something tells me you are incorrect on this one purwacarita. Everything about this keris says Balinese to me.