I’ve just found some videos on warangan making and using

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

On the safety issue I support it 110% for everybody else, for myself I follow the Jawa/Bali philosophy.

Siwa's got my number, and when its time to move on, I don't have much of a say in the matter.

I understand this, also 110% and feel very much the same way, though i am not against hedging my bets with Siwa where possible.
Of course i am sure you agree that the problem with videos like these is as Anthony suggests. Newbies see it on the web, they see the materials being handle without too much precaution, and they just assume these things are 100% safe. It's pretty irresponsible really, but there is not much we can do about it beyond stating the warnings here.

[milandro]

these are some new interesting videos from theKonservasi Museum Sonobudoyo from Yogyakarta


https://www.sonobudoyo.com/id/



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s303D47pQ8


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cbDXRPDWjI

[David]

Originally Posted by milandro

these are some new interesting videos from theKonservasi Museum Sonobudoyo from Yogyakarta.

Thanks André. These are interesting, but i am confused about some of their methods.
In the first video they are cleaning the keris with the hilt attached, which seems very odd to me. I suppose there is a possibility that the hilt had been attached with some kind of adhesive and that they did not want to go through the trouble of removing it. But in that case, i this were mine, i believe i would have wrapped the hilt up as securely as i could in plastic wrap to protect it from the lime juice.
I also find it curious that they go to the trouble in both videos of first peeling the limes before juicing them. Seems like a lot of extra trouble. Is anyone aware of any negative effects if the lime is juiced while still in the rind?
In the second video they work on a naked blade and go to the next step of applying warangan. The first thing i noticed is that they don't bother to clean the blade back to "white", removing ALL the previous warangan, before proceeding. I have always been taught that this is essential to the process in order to get a good stain. Also interesting that after the warangan they apply cream soap. Perhaps this is supposed to help neutralize the acids. I have always used a slurry of baking powder to do that so using soap at this point is foreign to me. While the before and after images of their warangan process is indeed noticeable i have the feeling that a better stain is possible for this keris.

[A. G. Maisey]

Sonobudaya comes up as a risky site, I dumped it.

First youtube, no comment

Second youtube, fair job

both youtubes were pretty abbreviated processes, I doubt that in the hand I would be satisfied with either result, these were just "touch-up" jobs.

the reason for peeling the lime before squeezing is that you can extract more juice from a peeled lime than from an unpeeled lime, especially if one does not own a lemon juicer.

personally, I like to avoid staining an older blade if it is reasonably free of corrosion and the pamor can still be read, often a wash under running warm water with dishwash detergent, and then a WD40 spray will give an acceptable result.

I do not use anything to attempt neutralisation of acids when I do an arsenic stain, I rinse thoroughly under running water & massage with my fingers, I pat dry with a lint free cloth, & I sun dry before oiling.

I do use bicarb slurry when I stain with ferric chloride, but we do not use this on tosanaji.