reversed hilt on palembang keris

[BluErf]

Originally Posted by asomotif

Considering that this keris is collected pre ww 2. Is it thinkable that in those days a keris would be left handed.

I still can't figure out what is the most natural position.
The hilt fits like a glove when in left handed position...
But still this is so unnatural to me that I consider to either enlarge the hole in the ukiran or slightly straiten the peksi to give a good fit in right hand position.

I think the hilt facing the front is not odd for your keris. the angle of the hilt is not abnormal for a Palembang keris. As I mentioned, most of my Palembang kerises have a pretty strong angulation. Some are straighter of course.

The issue you have is that the hilt seems to be sitting a bit too tall. The keris coming from a pre-WW2 collection may not preclude the hilt being switched at some point before it went into the collection. If I may may make an observation, the hilt's finishing is not the same as the sheath's. We could argue that it is because the hilt is handled a lot, and the finishing's all rubbed off.

Ultimately, we don't know what's the "correct answer". It could be a left-hander keris; the hilt could have been swapped. I guess the most important thing is if you like it.