Keris from Sumatra??

[ruudgroot]

A friend of me, gave me this keris. I think this keris is from Sumatra, but I'm no expert. Can You help me to indentify this keris.

[ronpakis]

Hello Ruud,

The keris itself, blade with handle, is from sumatra, minangkabau area. A small piece from the ring is missing. Handle looks pretty nice, horn? Perhaps you can make some more detailed photo's? The sheath does not belong to this keris and looks to me as from borneo. I cant see if the sheath is complete or perhaps cut down. If it is complete it is a nice sheath but unfortunatly there is no sword (mandau?) to fill it.

Greets Ron

[asomotif]

Look like a pandat or latok scabbard. Nice catch

[ruudgroot]

Thanks Ron, for your explanation. Do you know how old the keris is?

[David]

Originally Posted by ruudgroot

Thanks Ron, for your explanation. Do you know how old the keris is?

Hi Ruudgroot. Welcome to the forum.
Judging even a rough age for keris can often be difficult, even with good photographs. Personally i would be willing to say that yours is antique, but even saying what century can be difficult with a blade form which changes so slightly through different periods and whose exacting details are sometimes made to conform to the designs of a previous era's model. Materials used can often give clues to age, but usually the keris must be in the hands of the expert to judge this as again photos don't tell the whole story (weight, texture, true color, hidden detail). Even in hand it might still be difficult to correctly judge a blade like yours that looks to be in need of a cleaning and restaining. Add to that the ever changing updating of dress as older sheaths and hilt wear out and i think you can begin to see the problem.
On the safe side i think you keris is at least 19th century. It looks like i nice solid keris. The hilt appears old as well, in a Jawa Demam form, but it would be nice to see some better, closer photos. Is it horn as Ron suggests, or wood? I concur with the past statements that this is probably a Sumatra blade that appears to have some Bugis influence. The sheath, if it hasn't been made clear enough, is not a keris sheath at all, but intended for a completely different type of weapon. I would love to see some closer shots of the blade as well to see what kind of activity you have going on there.

[kai]

Hello Ruud,

Don't toss out the scabbard - it's a nice one, too.

The keris needs another scabbard though. As already pointed out by Ron, the (silver?) pendokok is nice and typical Minang Kabau style as is the (wooden?) Jawa deman hilt. Blade is not typical Minang but these sepokal blades are quite commonly found there, too.

Once you have removed the hilt from the blade, the latter could certainly use a gentle cleaning to remove the active rust - if you start out with pineapple juice, there's probably enough warangan left among the rust for reasonably staining the pamor once the blade is clean (search the forum for pointers).

Regards,
Kai