Sandang walikat sheath from metal
 

Hello/Salam

Here is my new purchase based on pictures (as usual) and although it is not yet in my hand and i can not make a better judgement, i would like to ask opinions from all of you regarding several points.

i bought this primarily because i do not have any specimen of sandang walikat waranka and i have been particularly looking for one that is made from metal preferably silver. This one , the seller (which most of you can easily identify I think) described it as made from 'white metal'. The handle is described as ivory, although from the pic I could not ascertain it as such. it could very well be from bone or deer horn? the carving is shallow and the motif is not familiar to me. So here are the questions:

1: can anyone suggest where this metal sandang walikat originated from? (my understanding is that this form is generally from madura/east java). What metal is it made of? what is 'white metal'?

2: are walikat wrankas made from metal common?... i don't see this very much. Who use this type of wrangka? and is it for any particular purpose?

3: I guess the hilt is from Sulawesi based on the rekko/patah tiga form. Is this kind of carvings recent or old style? is it ivory?

4: the blade is simple but robust looking spokal(sapukala) type. my guess is it is from sulawesi.is this origin reasonable?

thank you and waiting for your comments and clarification.

nik

one more question

5: The mendak does not look appropriate to this hilt?. I guess I will replace this with an old pendokok .

Origin is East Jawa, metal is 99.9% certain to be mamas, I do not know the composition of mamas. This type of wrongko is not common, I do not know if this type of wrongko had restricted use, but my guess would be that it did not, I do not know if it had any special, dedicated purpose.

No comment on the hilt.

Yes, in Jawa we'd just designate the blade as "Bugis".

Hello Nik,

Not possible to verify from these pics; sure looks like an antique ivory hilt to me though. I'd guess this got carved from a spermwhale tooth.

IMHO, the carving is clearly traditional. It is heavily worn though - thus, you need some imagination to compare the carving motifs.


Yes, despite its quite small size, this does look like a heavy blade from Sulawesi Selantan.

There is a tiny slit on both sides of the gonjo - please post a close-up of this unusual feature once you receive this keris!


Of course, I'd also like to hear how well the blade fits the scabbard. If this is believed to be a Bugis blade and hilt in a East Jawa context, the ensemble would make sense. Otherwise, a Bugis selut would certainly look more harmonious for the keris...

Anyway, I'd like to see the mendak cleaned, too.

Regards,
Kai

Alan;

I've not heard the term 'mamas' before. Is this a indonesian ? or just colloquial form used by some?

Kai;

Yes, the blade is relatively small. Only 11 inch length.

I noticed that little slit too... wonder what is the purpose? I can not show close up as I don't have not received the keris yet.

I love this style of sandang walikat sheath and would like to add one to my own collection one day. But Alan is right that this is East Jawa in origin so it does seem wrong for the keris itself, which i agree is possibly Sulawesi. Too bad none of the photos show the fit of the blade in the sheath.
I can't tell for sure what the hilt is made of. Could be ivory. But if it is it doesn't look like sperm whale to me.
That mendak also seems out of place on this ensemble.
I do love this little blade though and think to will clean up nicely. I also noted the notch and assume it may have to do with how the gonjo is secured or the method the pesi is attached to the blade.

Mamas is sort of like nickel silver, or german silver, there is a Chinese type of white metal that I think might in fact be mamas, but I've forgotten the Chinese name, its something like "pakun" or similar I think.

I've maybe seen that type of little slit before, sometimes vertical, sometimes horizontal, and once or twice with a gold infill. I've been told that the gold serves the purpose cooling the wilah and of preventing any possible adverse effects flowing from the wilah back to the user. In fact, I've seen gold bars and dots in the base of a wilah, and in various places in a gonjo.

My thoughts, to the extend of my limited knowledge:

Could this also refer to 'pasak', the insertion of a valuable metal e.g. gold/suasa/silver/alloy or even iron/steel/pamor material into the gonjo recess, as seen in some old Semenanjung keris? 'Apparently' the use of gold inserts on the keris is to 'counter' the 'invincibility' of the opponent. No personal experience of this though.....

Hello Nik,
You can check "nickel silver" or "alpaca" on Wikipedia (typically 60% copper/ 20% nickel/ 20% zinc alloy) and your scabbard is probably made from this metal but some pieces made from mamas have a more yellowish colour so probably have a different alloy composition.
Regards

Jean, I've probably only handled about twenty or so of these wrongkos, and they were all made of mamas. However, having said that, frankly I do not know how to tell the difference between nickel silver, german silver, alpaca, white brass and the Chinese stuff I've forgotten the name of, short of laboratory analysis. I strongly suspect that they're all basically the same stuff, just different names in different places.

The so-called Chinese silver is called “ paktong” in Cantonese and “baitong” in Mandarin.It is an alloy of copper, nickel and zinc. No silver is involved. China flooded with it all foreign markets, especially Europe, as far back as 16 century.

German metal workers figured out how to make bright silvery paktong at
the beginning of 19 century. This is why it is often called German Silver or neusilber. It was also called “alpaca”

It is virtually the same as “Melchior” ( Ital), mutilated “maillechort” ( French) after its inventors Maillot and Chorier.

Germans and French predictably still argue about the true European origin of cupronickel, but such nationalistic pride is very commonplace. The only example of scientific generosity I know is syphilis that is called “French disease” all over the world except for France, where it generously call “Italian Disease”.

the reason why i keep coming to this forum ...we learn something new everyday !

Yes Ariel, that's the stuff. Could not remember the name for the life of me. I had a few similar letter combinations in my mind, but they all seemed wrong --- as they were. Thank you.