Central Javanese keris for comment

[Sajen]

Thank you gentlemen,

When I have received the keris I'll clean the blade like Alan suggested and will post a picture of the result.

[A. G. Maisey]

Detlef, when you get to the final dry, if you are forced to use an oven it might be best to support the blade at the pesi & the tip on oven proof glass, something like a couple of small Pyrex dishes or similar, if you put it onto the bars of an oven shelf they can leave a mark, and the oven very low.

Hair dryers are good too.

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Detlef, when you get to the final dry, if you are forced to use an oven it might be best to support the blade at the pesi & the tip on oven proof glass, something like a couple of small Pyrex dishes or similar, if you put it onto the bars of an oven shelf they can leave a mark, and the oven very low.

Hair dryers are good too.

Thank you Alan,
I use normally a hair dryer for something like this.

Regards,
Detlef

[Sajen]

Received it, here some first pictures, fast taken with my handphone. Added a mendak.

[kai]

Congrats, Detlef, I do like this blade - dhapur as well as pamor!

Also the scabbard looks much better with reversed pendok; neat choice of timber and nice survivor despite the chipping. I guess this can be patched.

Could this blade possibly represent a Madurese take on another keris style?

Regards,
Kai

[A. G. Maisey]

No Kai, definitely not Madurese.

In my earlier post I suggested Central Jawa, probably somewhere around Klaten , I've looked at the top pic of the gonjo, this gonjo complies with Mataram form, and that supports my earlier suggestion.

I do not want to revise my initial ideas, it is a very nice keris, not top drawer, but very few keris are.

There is one indicator that places the complete keris into a lower level of quality:- the grain in the quite nicely sculpted wrongko has been incorrectly orientated, it should flow downwards towards the front of the wrongko. This deficiency tells us that it has been made by a lowly ranked tukang wrongko, somebody who really did not know the correct conventions. Or perhaps the material used for the wrongko was unable to support correct orientation, but it was used anyway, & this tells us that the original value of the blade was insufficient to encourage the time & cost of obtaining a better piece of material.

[kai]

Thanks, Alan!

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

In my earlier post I suggested Central Jawa, probably somewhere around Klaten , I've looked at the top pic of the gonjo, this gonjo complies with Mataram form, and that supports my earlier suggestion.

I do not want to revise my initial ideas, it is a very nice keris, not top drawer, but very few keris are.

There is one indicator that places the complete keris into a lower level of quality:- the grain in the quite nicely sculpted wrongko has been incorrectly orientated, it should flow downwards towards the front of the wrongko. This deficiency tells us that it has been made by a lowly ranked tukang wrongko, somebody who really did not know the correct conventions. Or perhaps the material used for the wrongko was unable to support correct orientation, but it was used anyway, & this tells us that the original value of the blade was insufficient to encourage the time & cost of obtaining a better piece of material.

Thank you Alan for further comments!
May I ask you why the orientation of the wood grain has to look to the other side? Is it possible to give the blade a dhapur? Pamor?
I've cleaned the blade, and at the moment it's drying from WD40. I will post pictures soon.
Regards,
Detlef