Black stain spreading on keris during vinegar cleaning

[milandro]

from another thread

Originally Posted by Bob A

Has anyone considered or actually used antimony trioxide in place of arsenic trioxide for the purpose of staining keris?

From what I can cursorily discover, it is considerably less toxic than the arsenic compound, though of course not without risk.

[David]

Yeah, i noted Bob's question at the time, but don't really know anything about antimony trioxide. Apparently no one else does either as no one responded to his query.
As far as i can tell it has one great advantage over arsenic trioxide in that i believe it can be purchased by the average citizen, but the question of whether or not it works remains to be seen. It does seem to be much cheaper (and more available) than As2O3, so maybe someone here might want to do some experimentation.

[ariel]

I have cleaned rusty and heavily patinated blades ( NOT krises!) with “ Renaissance Metal de-corroder”. On top of efficacy, there is no need to use gloves.
Cover the blade generously with the gel, using reasonably narrow brush, wrap in plastic ( I used Saran Wrap) leave for 24-48 hours, unwrap, wash the gel off under faucet, dry and Â…thatÂ’s all. Rust goes away, some patina stays. Then , if satisfied, oil. I use melted Renaissance wax: when semiliquid, it gets into all scratches and crevices. If not, I would guess needs repeating or polishing.

I like mine with some patina ( kisses of time), so never had to go beyond the first step.

[David]

Originally Posted by ariel

I have cleaned rusty and heavily patinated blades ( NOT krises!) with “ Renaissance Metal de-corroder”. On top of efficacy, there is no need to use gloves.
Cover the blade generously with the gel, using reasonably narrow brush, wrap in plastic ( I used Saran Wrap) leave for 24-48 hours, unwrap, wash the gel off under faucet, dry and Â…thatÂ’s all. Rust goes away, some patina stays. Then , if satisfied, oil. I use melted Renaissance wax: when semiliquid, it gets into all scratches and crevices. If not, I would guess needs repeating or polishing.

I like mine with some patina ( kisses of time), so never had to go beyond the first step.

I have no doubt this is an effective way to clean rust Ariel. However, this current discussion is regarding the STAINING process for keris, either with warangan or some other process that will darken the iron and raise the pamor pattern, not how to remove rust. The rust removal set for keris would precede the staining process.