Identify a Keris

[Ghostextechnica]

Thanks so much Detlef, David and A.G. Maisey!

Really, really appreciate the detailed comments - fantastic to know more about the Keris I've admired for so long.

I currently have it displayed on a wall in my home and I'm pretty tempted to merge some of your comments into a placard that explains the style and background (especially as I want to pass it down to my children some day).

Something like this?:

Central Javanese Keris (19th Century) - dressed in the style of Solo (Surakarta), 9 luk blade.

Completely makes sense that it's likely village work - my grandfather wasn't very wealthy but liked to travel to remote areas of the globe (comparative to where he lived) long before it became more common to be well travelled. Highly possible he purchased it from a village smith.

[David]

Hi Alan. Could you expand upon your identification of the wrongko as Gayaman Ladrang or possibly a Gayaman Kagok Bancihan. How do these forms of gayaman wrongko differ regarding form and place in cultural use. Thanks!

[A. G. Maisey]

Here is a page from Haryoguritno's "Keris Jawa", in reality we do not see this variety in use these days, and to find physical examples of many wrongko styles other than the commonly used ones is quite difficult.

I do not know the correct social usage for all the styles. Everybody knows ladrang for dress-up, gayam for everyday, sunggingan for parties --- there are another couple of current usages, but right now I do not have time to look them up, and these are all I can remember.

[A. G. Maisey]

Ghost, I'm not real big on hanging keris on walls, they get dusty, fly spotted, if you're in a humid environment they rust.

Its just too much work & constant attention when you hang them up, I used to do this a long time ago, but I've learnt a little bit since then.

This keris is worth putting a bit of work into. If you care to PM me I'll be happy to advise.

[Jean]

As a passionate collector I personally love to hang my krisses on the wall, I handle them and replace them regularly for varying my pleasure... And provided that you live in a dry environment and don't expose them directly to the sun light, they don't need much attention, just oiling the blade and polishing the pendok from time to time.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes Jean, many people do like to display their keris and other things on their walls.

I did the same for about the first half lifetime of my keris involvement, before I finally decided it was not a good idea I had around 50 keris and a few pedangs and other things on the walls of a hidden alcove off my lounge room. At the time I was living in the western suburbs of Sydney, a remarkably dry part of the Sydney area.

I maintained these wall hangers pretty much as you describe, and I had done the type of maintenance you describe throughout the entire time I had accumulated keris and other sharp pointy things. I had in fact gone a little further, and wherever possible I had used plastic sleeves over the oiled surface of my blades.

There were two reasons for the sleeves, the first is that an oiled blade kept in a plastic sleeve can survive for many years without needing to be restained, the second reason is that an oiled blade, even if wiped off after oiling will over time corrupt and stain the wood of a wrongko. Quite simply it is very unwise to store ferric materials touching wood, if oil is involved it damages the wood, and always the wood will damage the ferric material. some woods are a bit kinder than others, sandalwood and teak are both a bit oily and adverse reactions are slower with these woods.

However, no matter how diligent I was with my maintenance procedures the simple fact of the matter is that to maintain more than a couple of keris left out in the open, on a wall costs time, and time costs money.

Not only that, but finely finished wood definitely will lose its fine finish if kept in the open when compared to keris that have been kept in singep and a protective environment, such as a drawer or a cabinet.

Perhaps if one lives in an air conditioned house or apartment where both temperature and humidity are controlled this situation might be a bit kinder than the accommodation that I prefer to live in. I have never lived in an air conditioned house, I like my doors and windows open, and in most parts of Australia that means you live with flies and other insects and dust. In the Western Suburbs of Sydney winter temperatures can go to zero C and summer temperatures can go above 45C. No cooling in summer, only localised heat in winter, frankly I much prefer to put on another pullover, I find artificial heat uncomfortable.

I mentioned that I had around 50 wall hangers in the period before I abandoned this practice, but in my drawers and cabinets I had a great many more keris and other, let us say, "security blankets". I was able to compare condition of the items kept in a protective environment and items kept on walls over a population of more than 500 objects. The protected items fared very much better over time than did the exposed items.

I should also mention that by the time I had decided that I would limit my wall hangers to between something like one or two and none at all, I had been exposed to Javanese thought, close up & personal, for around 20 years. It had become obvious to me that the people I associated with in Jawa who were very traditional, and who also had intense involvement with keris did not go in for keris display. At most, they might place a pusaka keris or a particular spiritually charged keris in a position that was open to family, but not to those outside the family, and that very limited display would be for a very limited period of time.

Wanton display was regarded as very kasar(coarse, rough, unrefined) behaviour , behaviour indulged in by those who "were not yet Javanese"(literal translation). In the most simple of terms, open display of keris in polite traditional Javanese society is straight out bad manners and disrespectful.

I must admit, that this alternate way of looking at things has had an effect on the way I now look at the world in general, and at keris in particular.

So these days I pretty much follow what I was taught in Solo to be acceptable behavior where keris are concerned.

I do not condemn the display of keris by others in societies outside of Jawa, they are not in Jawa, they do not attach Javanese values to the keris, they do not feel as traditional Javanese people do about the keris, in short, they can make their own rules.

To a traditional Javanese person a keris is in fact a spiritual object, it is a link between the hidden world and the world we can see, it represents Mount Meru, abode of the Gods and the ancestors, and in the case of the pusaka keris it is a link between this generation of a kin group, and the previous custodians of the pusaka keris.

If a person can really understand what all this adds up to, I rather doubt he would want to hang keris all over his walls. It took me years to come to this understanding, and I no longer decorate my walls with keris.

But that's me. Others can do as they will.

[JustYS]

Hi Ghost,

Not sure how familiar you are with the terminology singep and what kind of oil to use.

So just to share with you what I do (basically pretty much what Alan said):

1. Use a mix between Singer Oil and Sandalwood oil (only 5-6 drops of Sandalwood oil, it’s quite expensive)
2. Wrap the blade with a cling wrap
3. Put it back in the sheath
4. Put it in singep
5. Polished the Pendok with silver cloth (if the pendok is silver)

Cheers,

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Here is a page from Haryoguritno's "Keris Jawa", in reality we do not see this variety in use these days, and to find physical examples of many wrongko styles other than the commonly used ones is quite difficult.

I do not know the correct social usage for all the styles. Everybody knows ladrang for dress-up, gayam for everyday, sunggingan for parties --- there are another couple of current usages, but right now I do not have time to look them up, and these are all I can remember.

Thanks Alan. I was aware of many of these variations, but had thought it was more a matter of different eras and styles than different purposes. Though i don't have a copy of Haryoguritno's "Keris Jawa" i believe i do have a digital copy of this chart you posted. I guess i never noticed one was named "Gayaman Ladrang". So do i now understand correctly that this is a gayaman sheath form that is acceptable for formal wear?

[A. G. Maisey]

Jean, WD40 has very limited capability as a long term protective against corrosion. It does have good short term capability, and as a moisture displacer I personally believe that it is supreme in its field. I have used and recommended WD40 for moisture displacement prior to applying oil and after blade cleaning & staining for many years, I believe I started to use WD40 some time in the 1950's, and I have been using it ever since. It is not just a good product, it is a great product. But it does have limitations.

The manufacturer advises that in a protective environment it has about a two year life as a rust preventative, and in an unprotective environment about half this time.

Prior to oiling a blade my complete preparation is to remove old congealed oil with a toothbrush & mineral turpentine, I then drench with WD40 and stand the blade and allow it to dry off overnight, the following day I brush on a mixture of +/- 50% sandalwood oil and either Singer sewing machine oil or medicinal paraffin.

I buy the sandalwood oil by the litre, it works out a lot cheaper that way.

I then tightly wrap the oiled blade in a plastic envelope.

Blades prepared in this manner can go for 20 years and longer with no maintenance at all.

I live waterfront to a salt water lake. I do not have any rust problems with my blades stored in this way.

The tradition in Jawa for oiling a blade with sandalwood or rose or jasmine oil is to comply with the concept of respect to the keris and to make it a pleasant place for any entity which may care to visit. Yes, the fragrance of the oil does penetrate the wood of the wrongko and the open grain of a blade, and this is exactly as is intended.

The downside of oil penetrating wrongko wood is that it leads to staining and material deterioration, which mean that in a wrongko where the gandar is attached to the atasan with an adhesive, this bond will eventually be loosened, and the gandar will become detached. Once oil has contaminated the joint surfaces of atasan & gandar there is only one adhesive that I know of that will give a degree of adhesion, & that is button shellac used as a hotmix glue. Button shellac is a very weak adhesive, and the joint will separate very easily.

Javanese wrongko joints frequently use button shellac, but keris from other keris bearing societies normally use a fish based wood glue (traditionally) or a modern adhesive at the present time. These other societies do not observe the same traditions as those which apply in Jawa.

In any case, whether one relies on oil soaked wood to prevent rust, or plastic film & oil, or constant repeated maintenance, this much is true:- nowhere in the world will we find a museum curator or conservator who recommends storing ferric materials on or against wood or any other cellulose based material.

Another thing that is true is this:- a good quality gun oil will provide far better protection against corrosion than either WD40 or Singer sewing machine oil --- but the stink of the stuff will surely guarantee that no spiritual entity will ever come anywhere near that keris.

[A. G. Maisey]

David, I cannot answer your questions in Post #13.

I simply do not know.

My guess is that these various styles were deemed suitable for certain usage at certain times in the past, but that is a guess, it is not a supportable answer.

I just had a look at what Haryoguritno says about the naming of various styles of wrongko, both for Surakarta & for Ngayogyakarta, and although he goes into how the styles are named and from where some of those names came he does not go into explicit detail. He seems to mostly associate the various forms with the stature and physical appearance of the wearer.

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

David, I cannot answer your questions in Post #13.

I simply do not know.

My guess is that these various styles were deemed suitable for certain usage at certain times in the past, but that is a guess, it is not a supportable answer.

I just had a look at what Haryoguritno says about the naming of various styles of wrongko, both for Surakarta & for Ngayogyakarta, and although he goes into how the styles are named and from where some of those names came he does not go into explicit detail. He seems to mostly associate the various forms with the stature and physical appearance of the wearer.

OK thanks. I appreciate your caution in not forming a definitive opinion here. But i assume you can see why i might wonder is a sheath form called "gayaman ladrang" would be acceptable formal wear given the use of "ladrang" in the name. I can understand how this might not have the most obvious meaning though.

[jagabuwana]

"The tradition in Jawa for oiling a blade with sandalwood or rose or jasmine oil is to comply with the concept of respect to the keris and to make it a pleasant place for any entity which may care to visit" (A. G. Maisey, Post #14)


Alan, in the Javanese belief system, what would make a keris worthy or eligible of being visited?

I'm mainly asking my question from the perspective of before and during the actual manufacture of the keris - the planning, the intents, the focusing of that intent through spiritual practices and so on.

[A. G. Maisey]

Jaga, this is a big question, principally because it involves going back into the past and restating things that as far as I can see have largely been forgotten.

The element of "respect" is still there, Empu Suparman used to say it was respect for the maker, but there are other principles tied into the character of the keris that Jawa under Islam has forgotten in detail but remembers in principle in that respect must be given.

If we wish to adopt a way in which to differentiate between the keris made as an item of trade, or dress, or a weapon, and a keris that has been made with spiritual content, then the easy way is to simply look for an old keris that bears the hallmarks of manufacture by a master craftsman, an empu. Such a keris might have been made with spiritual content. But then again it might not have been. One thing is believed to be certain, and that is that an ordinary trade, dress or weapon keris made by an ordinary smith cannot have been made with spiritual content, simply because such a maker would not have known the mantras.

In my "Interpretation" article I did touch on this idea of the keris as shrine, but that was in the context of Old Jawa and of Bali.

Essentially we are considering elements of ancestor worship. Where a keris has been made as pusaka it has been made with the intent that when called upon the ancestors can visit the custodian of that keris and through him reach the present day kin group.

But then a similar idea can exist where a keris has been dedicated to a particular deity. The visitor, ancestor or deity is not present all the time, but the keris is held in readiness for such a visit. During those times when the keris is empty it must be guarded against becoming occupied by an unwanted, perhaps evil or malicious entity, and that is the purpose of the hilt figure.