Nagasasra luk 11

[satsujinken]

2nd thread in this forum, just to share one of my keris collection to you all for the sake of educational purpose

now the story behind

I got this keris from friend of mine, this was once family heirloom, and wrapped in white cloth instead of warangka, with several objects such as dried flowers, coins, kemenyan (myrrh). hilt and mendak is original

previous owner died and his sons practically gave it up to me for small amount of money - well in javanese terms "mahar"

first impressions - I think the blade is newly made (kamardikan), but friend of mine said otherwise, he said it is Mataram nom (17th century), based on the texture of the wilah, the sound it makes, and the overall characteristic ... but he also said that the gold in the dragon's mouth is not original, perhaps replaced or later addition

this blade had spine consisted of miji timun pamor, which formed the dragon's body undulating from bottom to top, whereas the cutting section on both sides of the body is already thinning due to old age and regular cleaning, so the keris is relatively light - I try to capture it in camera

I have another like this, but with different garap (quality), and definitely from kamardikan and the quality of the steel used is different with this one.

this keris is found doused in oil and sandalwood powder and some kind of thick-gummy materials I never found on other blade I've seen so far

and it took nearly 4 hours just to clean the sticky gummy materials from the blade using warm water + soap + toothbrush.

The pamor is intact, but I am afraid that cutting edge is becoming too thin, so I did not stain it again but using choji oil as preserver now

now the spiritual side : friend of mine said that this particular keris had some kind of spirit within it, and quite old ... frankly I did not believe such mumbo jumbo, but it is a nice piece ...

specs :

dhapur : nagasasra
luk : 11
pamor : miji timun
tangguh : Mataram nom-noman ??

so without further ado, this is it :