Keris Jawa?

[A. G. Maisey]

Gustav, one of the great beauties of keris discussion is that it very frequently comes down to the expression of opinion, and one's opinion is usually formed by experience & tuition.

In spite of my 70 or so years of experience in the field of keris, experience that has involved more than 50 years of being directly involved with keris culture in Jawa & Bali, of 40 odd years of personal instruction from various keris craftsmen & collectors in Jawa & Bali, my personal training & instruction from Empu Suparman Supowijoyo (Alm.) of the Surakarta Karaton Hadiningrat, training that stretched over a 15 year period, in spite of this modest background in the culture, belief systems, and construction of the keris, I have not been able to form a solid, supportable opinion in respect of either the geographic location, nor the precise time period where this keris under discussion originated.

I have said as much in my post #12.

I congratulate you upon your incredible depth of knowledge that has permitted you to form such firm opinions in the absence the advantages that I have had.

You have my most earnest admiration.

I have somewhat similar admiration for one of my grandchildren who a couple of days ago, during a Christmas visit, blessed me by devoting some of his time to explain the intricacies of Quantum Mechanics to me. I did not learn very much from my 6 year old grandson's lecture, I was never much good at math, so I just kept agreeing with him & nodding my head. I'm always easily impressed by understanding that flows from instinctive knowledge, knowledge that has been gained in the absence of adequate time & experience & tuition.