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Originally Posted by kino
As I said in my post "my If they were mine I would have them replaced. Just my opinion". To me it would be more pleasing if it were fitted properly.
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Yes, i understand it was just your opinion. It was your opinion that i was responding to with one of my own.
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Originally Posted by kino
I know of some Keris collectors that change the dress of the blades and Japanese sword collectors that do the same to meet their own personal taste.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
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Yep, i as well have changed out worn pieces of keris dress such as mendaks and had sheath made for blades without. I have also replaced hilts on a couple of blades when the hilt was either inappropriate for the style of blade (i.e. a Sumatran blade w/ a Sumatran wrongko, but a Javanese hilt), a cheap more modern replacement that didn't do the blade justice, or just simply damaged beyond repair. Dress is most often changed on keris when the old ones have worn out to the point where it is disrespectful to the blade to maintain it as is. While the owner's personal tastes inevitably come into play when making such changes, for me they are changes which are driven more by necessity than taste and a desire to restore the piece to it's former glory.
With Bill's kris you would find it more pleasing if it were "fittted properly", but i'm not convinced that this form is improper. These seem like traditional and indigenously made baca-baca. They look like they have been on the kris for some period of time as well. I can understand that they may not be to your taste, or even mine for that matter, but for me that would not be enough of a reason to go to the trouble of changing them. To me they seem like a completely valid ethnographic variation, and therefore even more collectable from that standpoint, even if my own aesthetic sensibilities would prefer to see thinner ones.