ON THE MALAY METHOD OF COLOURING KRIS AND 
OTHER BLADES WITH ARSENIC. 
By L. Wray, JUN. I dale 
It has often been stated that the Malayan kris blades, spears, and 
other weapons are poisoned; this, however, is a mistake, the application 
of arsenic being made solely for the purpose of differentially colouring 
the various qualities of steel of which the blades are composed, and 
showing the damask patterns more clearly. It is, however, more than 
probable that in times past the blades were actually poisoned with 
arsenic, otherwise it is hard to understand how the idea of applying it to 
them could have originated; for it seems very unlikely that the chemical 
reactions on which the process is based were known to such a singularly 
unscientific race as the Malays, and subsequently used to enhance the 
beauty of their weapons. As now employed, only a very thin firmly- 
adherent film is deposited on the parts of the blades intended to be 
dark, and from its close chemical and mechanical union with the metal 
and its insolubility in the presence of iron, it would be quite inoperative 
as a poison, even allowing for the well-known fact that much less 
arsenic when introduced into the circulation will produce a fatal result 
than when it is taken internally. 
The blades of most krises are of what is known as damasked steel; 
that is, they are made by welding together a bundle of wires or strips of 
steel of different degrees of carbonization, so that when they are etched 
with acid or treated with a chemical compound which deposits a coloured 
film more readily on certain qualities of steel than on others, they 
assume a banded, mottled, or figured appearance, according to the dis- 
position the strips of the original bundle of steel have been given 
during the forging. The patterns and designs imparted to the blades by 
the Malayan blacksmiths are sometimes of great beauty and intricacy, 
displaying a high degree of skill and a perfect knowledge of the qualities 
of the metals used and of the treatment necessary to produce the best 
eilects. 
In some of the blades, gold or copper is seemingly welded into and 
amongst the layers of steel. How this is accomplished is not clear, and 
it is believed that it would be correct to state that nothing similar is 
done by European artificers, but examples of blades containing each of 
these metals are occasionally to be met with. 
Apparently no description of the manufacture of Malayan kris blades 
has been published, and therefore the technique of the art can only be 
guessed at. Some blades are manifestly produced in the way already 
indicated; in others, some of the strips of steel have been previously 
made of two or more strips welded and twisted together; while some 
seem to be formed from an ingot of damasked steel which is drawn out 
to nearly the shape of the blade, then slit along the edges and a piece of 
Pei IM dev, UNS eee 
