Birthday present for my keris.
 

as his birthday is coming up, i thought i'd buy him a present
new hilt installed, old one alongside for comparison.

he may not be as fancy or as old as some of y'alls, but he's my only real keris, so i pamper him...

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s...risukiran2.jpg

http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s...risukiran1.jpg

i'm sure he'll prefer it to the more crudely done original.

next time he'll get a bit of jewellery for his mendak.

That is indeed a nice thought, though in this case i think it works both ways as a gift, kinda like buying you wife a lacey black neglige. ;)
I think this hilt looks fine, certainly better than the original, though you should show it in the sheath because the hilt really needs to look best with that as together they are the outer wear clothing of the keris and that will tell us more as to the "correctness" of your choice.
I wouldn't personally change out the mendak just to put some fancy bejewelled one there as you don't necessarily want to out shine the keris itself with it's fittings. You might want to consider the keris itself first, the level of quality that it is, the level of wealth that an owner of such a keris might have, before you make any changes. :)

this was the original dress:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s...ris003_DCE.jpg

i had a look at some other mendak, i think that it's current one is fine, the ones i saw, as you said are a bit gaudy.

The new hilt is better, Kronckew. Both are Madura-type hilts, or Madurese usually call them as "landeyan" hilt (landeyan, in Javanese term has a different meaning. Javanese landeyan, is a long wooden-holder for tombak or traditional spear...)

The original sheath is also a Madura warangka, "daunan" type of sheath. Daunan, is similar to "ladrang" in Solo or Surakarta style, or "branggah" for Jogja style.

The pamor of your keris, we call it as "tritikan" (zigzag near the edge, with beras wutah or wos wutah pamor inside the zigzag lines...)

thanks for the additional info, so many different terms to learn.

one should always keep learning ;) keeps my brain from going soft.

Lovely pamor on this keris :)

The new hilt is indeed much better.

Personally I like silver for a mendak, like on this old hilt I recently found.
It is a bit of luxury that can be very simple.
(no stones on a madurese keris IMHO)

That is a Madurese mendak; correct ?
It shares the same shape as this one .
Sorry for the harsh lighting . :o

Perhaps the next gift for your keris should be a nice Madura mendak .
I think the one on it now is Javanese . :)

Lovely handle .

Recent Madura mendak are not easy to find. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen one. That means you need to get hold of an old Madura mendak. There are not a lot of old Madura mendak in the market-place, and most of what are seen are silver.This means that the Madura mendak for this hilt could cost as much as the hilt. I reckon the mendak that is already on it is quite OK.

These are just examples on Madura and East Jawa mendhaks. I think they fit for Madurese hilts...

kronckew,
Lovely keris with a nice replacement hilt. If you could get a nice maduranese mendak, that would be good, else... the existing one looks just fine.

pak Jimmy,
very nice mendaks... I'm very much interested to replace one of mine...

The bottom part of my pendokok (mendak) was missing when I acquired this piece. Temporarily, I've replaced with a spare javanese mendak, for now. If I could get one of those, East Java or Madura mendak, (the 1st picture, 2nd row, 1st from the left), that would be very good indeed... (hint..hint). ;) :D

btw, this is a 2-piece pendokok, (bottom piece missing). The maduran mendak with the meniran, would make a 'some-what', ok replacement, as compared to the javanese mendak.

Dear Shahrial,
Believe me or not, I got some of these old maduranese mendhaks from collectors who replaced them with Javanese mendhaks, after acquiring new kerises for their collection. Some of them were replaced as a matter of different taste, or ignorance of their values. So, just lucky me...
I am keeping too, "broken" old mendhaks from friends and collectors. In Jogjakarta (Kota Gede), people still can repair them. Never throw away broken mendhaks...

I believe you. Point noted. ;)
By the way, that mendak would make a nice present for my keris. :D

Gentlemen....if you want to conduct any business or swap please take it to PM. Thanks. :)

Believe me, David. I am not making any business in this forum. I know the rule. I just want to share examples on mendhaks. Thanks a lot...