Seeking Help in Identifyling Keris

[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!