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Old 1st December 2013, 09:31 PM   #9
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
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Russel, I'm going to make a couple of comments here that are going to put me out of step with what has already been said, and for that I apologise.

I doubt that this blade can be considered to have pamor. Pamor is the outer skin of a blade that has a core. This blade does not appear to have a core. It believe that close examination would reveal that what we can see is a simple blade made of iron, the grain in the material shows that this iron has been worked in the forge, ie, forged out, folded, welded a number of times to get rid of impurities and make it useable.

Sometimes a blade will use plain worked iron rather than pamor as its outer skin, in such a case we would call that iron outer skin "pamor sanak".

I've looked long and hard at the pics of this blade, and the only rust I can see is slight discolouration in a couple of places. I'd soak in WD40 for a week or so and then give it a brushing with a hard brush, maybe a bit of steel wool on the end of a sate stick could be used on some of the spots. If the rust is worse than I think I can see, then maybe a soak in vinegar.

This is an old tombak with a somewhat scarce form, but it is of very ordinary quality.

Personally, I would not bother with restoration of this scabbard, but having said that, it is totally restorable, and easily so. All you need to do is attach a new piece of wood to the tip with a mortise & tenon joint, recarve it with a little finial similar the ones Detlef has shown, and match the colour. The little missing piece on the side can be repaired in a similar fashion. I'd probably use Aquadhere for the tip, and 5 minute Araldite for the little missing piece on the side, but I could well opt for using Araldite on both joints, depends on a number of factors what adhesive I'd use.

Generally speaking, collectors in this field need to learn to do their own restoration and repair. It is possible to get work like this done in Indonesia, from my perspective the cost and effort involved in restoration of a scabbard like this would simply not be worth the trouble, far better to begin learning the skills needed yourself, and this would be a good piece to start your education on. In fact, you have the capacity to do a better job than you could get done in Indonesia. I am very familiar with the work of m'ranggis in Central Jawa and although their carving and faking skills are often very good, they invariably use super-glue type adhesives, the favourite is Alteco. These adhesives dry out over time and the joint eventually loses strength and fails.
Additionally, they prioritise finished appearance rather than quality of workmanship, and will never do a tongued joint if they can get away with a butt joint. Combine a butt joint with an unsuitable adhesive and what you've got is a short-term fix, not something that is good for another 100 years, which should be your objective if you're going to do any restoration at all. They are perfectly capable of doing meticulous work, but the only way to get this work is to check while it is production and reject anything that does not meet your personal criteria.

On a scabbard like this one, which in Jawa would be viewed as a piece of junk, it would in fact be difficult to get any tukang wrongko to do a careful and a quality job, simply because he would consider that the object was not worth his time. In Jawa they don't see things in the same way that collectors in the western world do. A totally different set of values are applied to many things.
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