23 luk Bali Keris for comments
 

A friend of mine owns this very nice original Bali keris.

In the Netherlands we are quite flooded with recent Bali kerisses that look very nice but just are not the real thing.

This keris is original and in my opinion from the 19th century. It has 23 luk. Woodwork has a very nice patina. Personally I do not have any Bali kerisses and have no knowledge whatsoever on these

My friend would like to hear your opions about his keris.

Regards, Erik

Nice keris and sarong. About age :confused: i don't know (the ring seems not so old)

Yes Erik, that's beautiful! Looks like it still has a Balinese stain and finish too.
As for the uwer (ring), it probably isn't original to the keris, but that certainly doesn't effect the age of the keris itself. ;) :)

Erik,

Seems like a very good keris considering the staining and finish as David already stated.

Do you have a picture of the point of the keris ?
With the new made keris we see today, they don't manage to keep the pamor in the shape of the blade.
At the base of the keris it looks nice but towards the point the pamor just 'blurs' away.

So it will be nice to see how this looks on an old keris.

Neat blade but I especially like the hilt :)

Yeah, this is a nice example of this "accordian" style hilt, but i would gladly trade it and many more like it for a blade like this. A old 23 luk blade is a rare occurance i believe and the quality of this one seems fairly high. :)

Pictures
 

Here some additional pictures as requested

Lovely! :)

Thanks Erik,

Perfect how the pamor ends in the point.
Really nice blade(apart from all those luks, I am more a 'between 3 and 9 luk' type of guy ;) :p )

As for 'accordeon' hilts. Here is a nice one too.

Nice keri! Though I find the tip form a little unusual. So far, the older Balinese kerises I've seen in publications have rounded, dome-shaped tip.

Is this style indicative of a particular era/region of manufacture?

hmmm...that hasn't been my experience at all. While i know the rounded tip you speak of most of my old Bali keris tips tend towards this pointier form. :shrug: