bali keris for comment
 

this keris, or what's left of it, was found on a mine sweeper wich was damaged in 1940 to avoid capture of the germans. The previous owner took it from the ship when it was left alone. He was then 16 years old. The ship can be seen here: http://www.dutchfleet.net/viewtopic.php?t=7405
The ship was in the harbour of Enkhuizen (netherlands), the city where i live, when it was taken. Any earlier information is unknown (about his particular piece)
It is heavily damaged but it has an incredible nice pamor, udan mas according to Tammens part 2, and also the blade fits the topsheath very good, so worth restoring i would guess. The mendak is unfortunatly missing but what is worse is that it probably once had an pendok, now its gone. In stead of the pendok that part is painted yellow (oker)

(anybody has an old bali mendak?)

Thanks for your comments,

Greetings Ron

Nice old Balines keris you have there. You can contact Alan Maisey he has a few nice Balinese mendak/uwer on his website.


http://www.kerisattosanaji.com/uwer.html

Lew

Actually Ron, if you ask me (i suppose i am an optimist :) ) i would say that the keris is in pretty good shape. Even if you can't restore the sheath, the blade looks great. Needs a good wash and a proper staining, but it has held up rather well, especially considering where it has been living over the years and it's lack of care.
As Lew points out, uwers (mendak) are fairly easy to come by and relatively cheap, even for a silver one.
I can't see if any of the actual wood is missing, but if not you can probably restore the sheath to some form of usefulness.
If you don't want to undertake such a project send it to me. I might not give it back to you afterwards, but i will give it a good home. ;) :D

Hi Ron, nice blade... based on what can be seen, the pamor should be nice as well. I don't think the pamor is udan mas. It looks more like bendo segodo, based on the faint pamor.

The sheath is salvagable and restorable.
Regarding other parts, others had given their opinions. :)

I concur with everything that has been said. This is an easy restoration job. and should come up brilliantly.

restoring
 

Thanks for the comments all.
With some tlc it should turn out rather nice. If it is really udan mas i don't know but tammens calls it that way so it is easily sought after if you have the book. It is almost exactly like his drawing. Im sorry but im unable to make better pictures.
What would you do with the painted part? Im considering to try and find the same colour and repaint it. Right now this is to much damaged to let it stay this way.

Greetings Ron

Hi Ron,
reference from Tammens, should be in Pg 26-27, Bendo Segodo. It's not like Udas Mas, in Pg 148-149. ;)

Here's an Udan Mas for comparison. [ example ]

udan mas or bendo segodo
 

Hi Alam and others of course,

I can see the difference with the one in the link. But it is also not very simmilar to the bendo seggodo but then again the tammens book is just a guideline. It looks like a double bendo segodo but at some places the fifth cirkel in the middle can bee seen like in the udan mas drawing. Any ideas about the paint job?

greetings Ron

Asian-Keris, please check your private messages and send me a response.

I am interested: should there be a pendok? Because the sheath is painted?

hi tatyana,

if there did not need to be a pendok there is no reason to paint it this way because only the front is a nice piece of wood. the back is a simple piece. this is often seen with kerisses wich had a pendok because the pendoks from bali often are open on the front to show a nice piece of wood.

greetings ron

The pelet wood used for the sheath and hilt looks very promising. Clean it up and give it some nourishing wood oil and I think you'd have a fantastic-looking sheath.

I should say that you CANNOT find pelet wood like this any more. So please take care of the wooden sheath and treasure it. :)

thanks for the comment bluerf,
if i find the result good enough i''ll post another picture, (in time)

Bali gandar sarong part
 

Ron,
The painted (usually ochre colour) backside "gandar" is quite common to bali keris.
I think this sarong did't have the half pendok.
This painted backside is to prevent wear.
I have heard this paint contains arsenic components so beware when you repaint this.
best regards,
Gert-Jan