Warangan treatment of an old Javanese blade?

[kulbuntet]

Originally Posted by kai

Musea are really obsessed with preservation. You'll have a really tough time to even have them considering any treatments that bear the slightest risk of corrosion/etc. much less experimental treatments! I also believe there is no certified museum conservator competent in doing warangan either.

BTW, I don't think the warangan treatment (if competently done by the paste method rather than soaking) will reduce the value of this blade. I would not dare to ship such a piece to Indonesia though...

Hi Kai, hru long time ago!
I am convinced that musea have the knowledge to do this, and if not could get this is a short time. I think the main reason they do not practice this like you already said, preservation this combined with value. The thought like "if it not broke, dont try to fix it" (IT rule 1) applies IMO. Most museum have conservators/curators and a well trained and experienced restoration department, at least the ones i know here in Amsterdam. I am not sure how the musea in Indonesia think about this, maybe one of the Indonesian forum members could provide information about this, would be nice to know.

If the waragnan treatment influences the value of a blade? Might depend of the criteria the interested buyer/owner have. So this could be seen as a personal thing, rather then a hard fact. Some people rather have a for example sikim with patina, so they see that it is old , others rather see it cleaned. What the best is to do, not sure. Maybe the best to do is follow your instinct and feeling, in the end you must be senang with the result and overall looks!

Kind regards Michel

[A. G. Maisey]

Museum Radya Pustaka in Solo, Jawa Tengah, used to periodically clean and stain tosan aji that was on display, I do not know if they still do. The administrative arrangements for this museum changed not so long ago, so anything is possible.

In Australia there was at least one museum conservator who was trained in traditional Javanese cleaning and staining methods, and one museum curator who had a good understanding of the processes involved. They both received their training and instruction more than 25 years ago, so I do not know the current situation.