making a kris...
 

nice vid:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juZryA0Y5C0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXQmmvAaiLw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dFLZvveYGI

To court controversy over our usual distain for weapons made for those who travel and modern Indian made steel and silver inlaid historic copies ect?

The reverence and mystery shown to the Kris to me is some what crestfallen.

GP, i viewed your videos and they all seem focussed on the Indonesian keris, not its Moro cousin. So i am transferring this to the Keris Forum.

maybe to you but to an Indonesian this vid was not, reading one of the comments :

"Pak Subandi, Mas Danar dan rekan2 lainya, mohon lanjutkan tradisi leluhur kita. Jangan lupa mengupdate teknik2 tersebut tanpa melupakan tradisi. Ilmu2 metalurgi banyak yg berkembang, gandeng rekan2 dari kampus"

Translated:

"Mr. Subandi, Mas Danar and other colleagues, please continue the traditions of our ancestors. Don't forget to update these techniques without forgetting tradition. Many metallurgical sciences are developing, in collaboration with colleagues from campus"


seems it is all in the eye of the beholder but who am I to contradict both him and you...

Perhaps you can add a vid showing how the kris's are made which supports and represents your thoughts / point of view ?

This is not making a keris; it's someone from another culture making a (K.L.O.), keris like object from crucible steel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXQmmvAaiLw
It might win a challenge on the Forged in Fire television series.

In these videos you can see how a traditional keris is made in Bali
(and how much work goes into it)

https://www.youtube.com/@LembuBara/videos

Yep, a lot of work in making a keris.

I've made about half a dozen, all of them made with traditional hand tools, no electric tools. Before Empu Suparman took me under his wing & taught me, I'd already made a couple, but they were pretty rough. The first one I made under Empu Suparman's tuition took me 16 days of cold work & about one & a half days of forge work with the help of two strikers.

The longest time it took me was 49 man days of 8 to 10 hours each, that was about 9 days of forge work, 3 men working for 8 hours a day for 3 days, then there was around 40+ days of cold work, again , all traditional tools.

It used to take Empu Suparman about 14 days of cold work to make straight random pamor keris. Empu Suparman also used traditional hand tools, no electric tools.

Virtually everybody now uses electric tools, and I think most makers take about a week to do the cold work.

In GP's three videos we can see Bandi in the first, & Ketut Mudra in the third, I've known both these men for more than 40 years. Both are serious & highly regarded makers. Ketut Mudra is perhaps the only living Pande Keris who knows the old mantras. I also knew Pak Ketut's father, Mangku Pande Made Wija.

Making a keris is pretty serious business, & virtually all keris now are made for the local market.

If one is prepared to pay & can make the right connections, it is still possible to have a keris made that has the potential to become a family pusaka.

Yes, FZ Knifes in the second video is a very good modern smith who makes nice modern knives. His video certainly does not belong with the other two videos here that show traditional knife making and what he creates in this video cannot be seriously considered a keris.