Seeking Help in Identifyling Keris

[G. Mansfield]

A few years ago I picked up a group of weapons at auction. The sole reason for purchasing was to win an African sword. The other two swords were from Indonesia. I think they may be worth finding more about. Here is one of them that I would like some help in identifying properly as I have very little knowledge on weapons from Southeast Asia.

What I do know…this keris was deaccessioned from the Valentine Museum in Richmond, Virginia. There is a red painted accession number on the ganja “15.5.17” presuming that it had entered the museum’s curation in 1915, so at least this old. There was no sheath included with it. The blade is wavy in form which I believe looks to be 9 luk. There is a nice pamor throughout, with some chips to the edges, especially near the point. Strong blade profile. The handle hardwood with 7 flat planar sides and with two carvings on the interior of the hilt. I have read that this type may be (Solo?) from Central Java or Surakarta and cecekan style and may have association with demon symbolism in the carvings? The mendaq and cuff are silver or silver alloy (Not tested). Dimensions: Blade: 14 ½” (36,3cm) Hilt & Balde: 18 ½” (47cm)

Is there a specific name for this type of Keris or attribution? I am not sure on age but the blade looks to be older. Not sure if it was remounted or not. It has been sitting in my curio for the past few years and I am eager to find out more about it. Any information would help and point me into a direction to learn more.

-Geoffrey

[G. Mansfield]

A few more Photos...

[David]

Well that's a nice old soldier. I think it is safe to say that it is much older than the acquisition date. It has, of course, seen better days, but to my eye this is a blade that was forged to a fairly high standard. Unfortunately erosion has taken away some of the finer details, but i see a blade that once revealed very well tooled ricikan and it still presents itself with a sense of balance and harmony. It presents a strong, well formed sogokan, tikel alis and ada-ada. Unfortunately it has lost material at the end of the gonjo and it is difficult to say if it ever had greneng. I count 10 luk, but you can be sure that once there were 11 as there is some blade loss at the tip. I believe it is indeed a pamored blade, though i would stop short of calling it "nice" in it's current condition and the pamor pattern is pretty hard to read. That might change if the blade were to be properly cleaned and restained.
The planar hilt has a rather unique style of cecekan. While the over all style of the hilt is indeed Surakarta, this is not the average style of cecekan to be found on such hilts. I don't, however, thing the cecekan is intended to represent a demon. I would love to hear someone more knowledgable on this style of cecekan chime in on this discussion. Regardless, it is a very nicely carved hilt. If the selut and mendhak (if they can be called that) are indeed silver i believe you might be able to tell simply by polishing it up a little. There is no crime in polishing silver and gold fittings as they were never intended to be left to tarnish. Silver will respond to cleaning in ways the mamas and other white metals do not in most cases. Though, of course, there are relatively inexpensive tests to determine this for sure.
I am pretty bad at tangguh and guessing ages. I would venture that this keris is not quite as old as Mojopahit era, though possibly for some time in the Mataram period. So 17th century might be a fair place to put this in. The hilt and "selut/mendhak" a bit later perhaps. I'm not sure this "selut/mendhak" is actually proper for Javanese keris. Is it all one piece or two separate pieces. It appears more Malay to me and seems oversized for the hilt.
Still a nice and interesting collection.

[A. G. Maisey]

More or less agreed.

Blade can be classified as a generic Mataram style, yes, it was 11 luk.

The cecekan or patra --- the hilt carvings --- seem to be generally agreed as residual demonic faces, this planar hilt style originated in the Islamic enclaves of the North Coast & were originally the prerogative of princes.

I am inclined to think that this keris was perhaps last worn in East Jawa, maybe along the coast.

[milandro]

I think this was coated with some black coating, perhaps, lacquer.

I have come across this a few times but not as " bad " as this one before. If the kris were mine I would certainly attempt to clean and subsequently I would have it stained.

The cleaning may involve more or less drastic methods which won't damage the blade. But may damage the date, in red, so, depending on how important , for you, that is.

one MAY use a chemical to strip the lacquer. That shouldn't damage the blade , provided you don't leave the paint stripper too long.

If it were mine , I would not care of the date and would , first of all, try to boil the blade in salty water and then after 30 or so minutes, start using a brush with hard plastic bristles to remove the black paint.

The paint is certainly not a new very hard to remove epoxy paint and will probably respond very well to the boiling. Boiling cannot damage blade . Of courser the Hilt can and should be removed.

[G. Mansfield]

Thanks everyone for your information and input. I have researched more on some of the terminology regarding parts of a keris and blade, along with this style of this blade and hilt. I now have a slightly better understanding and a greater appreciation for his keris which had little attention given to it up until now.

After a closer look…the selut / mendak are not silver but a white metal, probably a mixture of a different alloys. They are two separate pieces but the “mendak” is attached through bent taps clamping the “selut” with it. The wood hilt is lined with a very old brittle fabric, possibly used as a spacer. The blade is also in fact covered with a black coating which I had not noticed before, very nice eye! This is confirmed by rubbing the bottom of the ganja and finding the black residue flake off. I am assuming it was applied by the museum to prevent further deterioration of the blade, as it seems quite old and somewhat brittle in areas. I have not decided if I am going to restore the blade or leave it be as I have never done so before. After boiling the blade as stated, what is recommended for the stain? I want to make sure that the blade stays stable and does not lose its integrity and to see if any pattern is present and to preserve it if I choose to do so.

[kai]

try to boil the blade in salty water and then after 30 or so minutes, start using a brush with hard plastic bristles to remove the black paint.

No, salt will be very tough to remove completely from keris blades which can be quite porous: Any chloride traces left will greatly foster rust development!

There is a reason why marine archeology of metals employs very specialized preservation methods that literally take years to complete!

Regards,
Kai

[milandro]

the paint , assuming that that is paint, can be removed also from hot water alone. Maybe it is peech and hot water would work too.

There is also a chance that it won't come off and then other methods would be needed.

The hilt has to be removed before you do anything.

You say : " The wood hilt is lined with a very old brittle fabric, possibly used as a spacer..."

The majority of krises with the exception of Moro Krises , use hilts that are friction mounted and use all sorts of materials between the pesi or peksy ( the tang) and the hilt.


You MAY want to clean and stain the blade after removing whatever coats it. Staining is traditionally done by the use of Warangan.


There are many threads about staining a keris blade.

[Sajen]

I like the jerejan!

[A. G. Maisey]

It might be best to stick with "pesi", this is Javanese & it means specifically the tang of a keris.

There is no word "peksy", but "peksi" is Kromo, & it means "bird", the Ngoko is "manuk".

The word "pesi" is also a variant spelling of "peksi", this variation has been caused by the pronunciation of the "k" as a glottal stop, which can make it unheard in speech.

[David]

Geoffrey, as mentioned, there are numerous threads in our archives that cover the cleaning of keris. Here in one that is pretty good, but you may want to search our archives for "keris maintenance" or "keris cleaning" or "warangan" and read them all if you plan to embark on cleaning up this keris. If is were mine i would definitely clean it and attempt to restore the hilt somewhat, as it seems like it also needs a bit of attention and it is a somewhat rare style that should be maintained.
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=23934
The first thing i would do is remove that hilt completely and try to rejuvenate it a bit with a good wood oil. As mentioned, keris hilts are pressure fit with cloth or string. You can remove that old tattered material and any that you find caught up in the pesi hole of the hilt and replace it with a new strip of cloth when the time comes to place the hilt back on.
I would reiterate Kai's advice to NOT boil the blade in saltwater. I don't think the salt is a very good idea. Some varnishes can be difficult to remove. Given the black colour this seems more like some sort of paint, but who knows what goes through the crazed minds of some of these museum folk when it comes to keris preservation. LOL!
If this was mine i would simply lose the current hilt cup and spacer, especially since it is not silver. I am not even going to continue calling it a "selut/mendhak" even in quotation marks because it is neither of those. These type of fittings do not seem culturally appropriate to this keris. It is not too difficult to obtain a decent mendhak for a reasonable price. They pop up fairly often on ebay or you can google "mendak" and find many for sale on the internet. I'm even willing to bet that if you put up an in-search-of on our Swap page that someone would come to your aid.
What you are looking for to match to this hilt is something similar to the examples i have attached here. There are lots of variations and some styles will be more appropriate than others dependant upon the origin of this keris. Alan has suggested that your keris may have a East Jawa origin. There are a few of that variety in the last grouping which one of Alan's photographs, so perhaps he could guide you to a correct style for this ensemble.

[milandro]

I would like to understand the aversion to the use of salt in light of the fact that here lots of people etch krises by using salt, sulphur and rice water....

How is that salt any different from the other?


watch this to see how a blade is caked with salt, sulphur slurry made with rice water ....

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?p=259289


Anyway the boiling is salt water could be substituted by hot water alone if you must but remember that any salt residue would be removed by cleaning and furthermore any etching done preferably with Warangal would take care of removal of salt.

I have done this 3 times and still have no adverse effects

[A. G. Maisey]

The hilt is certainly worth some sympathetic attention, its main problem is severe cracking.

With cracking like this in a hilt it would be unusual for it to support a pressure fit.

If the hilt were mine I would consider two ways to go.

1) give it a good clean with furniture oil & a toothbrush, followed by hand rubbibg over time with furniture oil, then place it on a stand rather than use on a keris.

2) support the hilt in a bench vice so that the cracks come together, use old newspaper to prevent the vice damaging the hilt, using sharp drills of increasing sizes gradually enlarge & clean the tang hole in the hilt so that it will accept a close fitting inlay, a piece of dowel is suitable for the inlay.

Remove the hilt from the vice and test to see if it is possible to clean out the cracking with fine wire.

When the cracks are either clean or uncleanable, replace the hilt into the vice as it was previously, protected by newspaper, with the cracks in a position where they can be brought together, then using tinted two part epoxy resin, the slow drying/super strength type, insert the inlay, cover both the inside of the hole & the inlay with the adhesive.

When the inlay is inserted the adhesive will squeeze out of the cracks, now you bring the cracks together by gently tightening the vice.

Allow the adhesive to set. It is a good idea to smear silicon polish on the external surfaces of the hilt prior to using the adhesive, this facilitates removal of the adhesive, which is best removed at the point where it has begun to set but is not yet hard & has lost its stickyness, a sharpened bambu sate stick is a good tool for this, then wipe over with a rag that is lightly damp with mineral turpentine.

Give the adhesive time to cure well, around a week is usual, then clean the hilt with furniture oil, drill a hole for the hilt and refit to the keris.

When refitting a hilt with cracking like this it is best to use wool and restrict the pressure to the top half of the pesi.

EDIT

When the hole for the pesi is drilled it is perhaps a good idea to mark the centre of the inlay with a scribe --- make a small hole with the scribe point to guide the drill --- & then begin with a very small drill bit, say 1/8th inch & incrementally increase size, also support the hilt in vice & with newspaper protection.

[A. G. Maisey]

In respect of a suitable mendak.

In the absence of a wrongko, it is not really possible to make a recommendation for a mendak, just use one that is a suitable fit.

[Sajen]

Yep, I personally would keep and restore the hilt like Alan described and would part with the blade, the treasure from all is the nice hilt!