Another wilah for identification.

[Harley]

OK Jean, i shall make the pictures, i can understand that it's very difficult to judge from the bad pictures.

Henk, this one is the only one who's got a sheath, the other ones don't, and i shall place a picture of this sheath as well.

regards,
Ben

[Harley]

I hope that the pictures are good enough.

The strange thing with the sheath is that it's Djogya, but the pendok is in my opinion Solo.
The gandar is one piece with the warangka, but the bottom part of the gandar is to wide for a Djogya pendok.

regards,
Ben

[Jean]

Originally Posted by Harley

I hope that the pictures are good enough.

Ben

Hello Ben,
Thanks for the picture, no definite conclusion from my side but the shape of the greneng is odd, the ganja line does not match well with the blade (may be replaced later), the carving of the tikel alis does not look neat. A village blade IMO but I can be wrong, other opinions are welcome.
Regards

[Harley]

Hi Jean,

Thanks for your opinion, my knowledge is so little that i can't say anything about it.
I think that most of my keris are the simple(village work?), but i don't mind at all, if they are real ones, i am satisfied, I've read this a couple of times here, you get what you pay for.
But i hope there is someone who knows if this keris would be dressed in a Djoya or Solo dress.

regards,
Ben

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by Jean

Hello Ben,
Thanks for the picture, no definite conclusion from my side but the shape of the greneng is odd, the ganja line does not match well with the blade (may be replaced later), the carving of the tikel alis does not look neat. A village blade IMO but I can be wrong, other opinions are welcome.
Regards

Have to agree with Jean!

[David]

Originally Posted by Jean

A village blade IMO but I can be wrong, other opinions are welcome.

I dare say that the great (and i do mean GREAT ) majority of the blades we show here are village work. I doubt Harley had any greater expectation...

[Harley]

No doubt here David , those blades are all simple, and even if i can't tell anything about pamor or dapur, but i can recognize the nice blades that i see in some of the old topic's, it's a hole different world.
I said it earlier, for me it is important to save some of the old but simple blades,
I think they deserve that.
But i am glad that Jean & Detlef gave there opinion, because i don't have a clue

regards,
Ben

[A. G. Maisey]

Harley, it doesn't matter whether you dress it in Solo or Jogja scabbard and hilt.

The blades that are found in both types of dress can come from a wide variety of places, including Bali and Sulawesi.

Once a blade from whatever geographic location goes into dress from another location, it becomes that type of keris. This is the reason we tend to describe a complete keris by reference first to its dress, and then to its blade origin or tangguh.

Personally, I would not waste time in redressing this keris. The scabbard and hilt you have shown are more than adequate for this blade. As already advised, this is a keris of very ordinary quality, it lacks characteristics that allow it to be identified as from any specific area. Its just a keris, and can be dressed in almost any way that pleases you, however, the time spent in doing this would be purely for your own amusement.

Blades that come from anywhere in Jawa, and some places outside Jawa, can look very similar, unless they are old and good blades that follow a particular line of design , usually associated with a palace (kraton).

For ordinary, common or garden quality blades, many varying characteristics can be incorporated into the one blade, and quality of workmanship can vary from appalling to extremely high, however, since no established pattern or line of design is being followed, about all we can say is that one of these keris is from Jawa, and even then, that is not always so easy, nor so correct.

[Harley]

Thanks for the explanation Mr.Maisey, i am going to clean it, and try to wash it, and put it back in his own scabbard.

I think i better can make a picture of last 5 wilah's together, before polluting the forum, if there is one recognizable or more interesting, i can make a better picture of that one.

regards,
Ben

[Harley]

Here they are, i think the 3 on the left are more recent.

regards,
Ben

[David]

Originally Posted by Harley

I think i better can make a picture of last 5 wilah's together, before polluting the forum, if there is one recognizable or more interesting, i can make a better picture of that one.

Ben, you are hardly "polluting" the forum with these keris. As i previously stated, the large majority of keris that most of us collect are village pieces. These, as Alan states, come in all different levels of quality from appalling to excellent. I would also state that the simplicity of a dhapur is not an indication of quality. So please have no reservations about posting here. It is what the forum is for and you don't need to feel as if you need to have something exceedingly fine or unusual to warrant posting it.