Hey Steven, welcome to the forum.
So what what you are saying then is that size does matter, eh?
As Kronckew explained, a distinction must be made between Indonesian keris which are generally dagger length and the beefer, sword length Moro kris. The spellings are actually interchangable, but generally on this forun we have adopted "keris" for the Indo blade and "kris" for the Moro sword (sometimes called a sundang or a kalis as well) to avoid confusion. Moro kris tend to be extremely combat ready swords and would be my personal choice for a blade in a sword fight. The Indo keris tend to be more complex and variant in form, often with complex pamor patterns in the iron which hold various talismanic and protective significance. For me personally, as an artform in metal they are unsurpassed.
To answer your question, you will find the sword lenght Moro kris between the sizes of about 18" (mostly the older ones) up to about 28". This is just blade lenght, not hilt included. I would not be surprised if you found some slightly longer, but i would say the average ones are in the low to mid 20s range. They tend to be VERY edge sharp and while actually cleaving a man in two might be a rarity they were capable of inflicting deep and mortal damage, often cutting from the collar bone down deep into the middle of the chest.
The Indo keris is a stabbing weapon, so this type of damage is not possible with those blades. Over the centuries the Indo keris moved away from being a physical weapon and took a place in Indonesian culture as an object of status, power, family lineage and spiritual and magickal practice.
Hope that helps. As Henk suggests, use the search function. You will also find more info searching the old forums. happy hunting.
