one last question i have needs ellucidation.
when reading frederico's excellent info linked to on the reference site, i noted that during construction the kris blade would be descaled and shaped using a draw knife, with more recent ones being filed.
how does one tell?
my kris has a series of fine straight parallel grooves running longitudinally along the blade with no sign of what i would consider filing marks perpendicular to the edge, in fact i do not see any sign that the edge was ground to sharpen it other than a very fine polished edge bevel of maybe a millimeter & the lines are constant and parallel to the longitudinal axis right to the edge (there is some variation near the luks). i see no signs that a stone or grinder has ever been anywhere near this blade, no random marks as i'd expect from stoning or sanding/grinding. it certainly looks to my mechanical engineers eyes like it was scraped with a tool lengthwise rather than filed.
the lines over most of the blade are very fine, but near the hilt are a bit more distinct. across the gangya itself they ARE perpendicular & across the blade from the ends of the baca-baca to the hilt. is this filed or drawn? what dates were the transition to filing or is that too broad?
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