A rather nice golok

[Henk]

Flavio,
That's why I already said that it is hard to judge from a picture. I can only tell what I see on the picture. You have the golok in your hands .

Lew,
That's a very nice golok. If I'm not mistaken it is a West-javanese golok.

[Flavio]

Hi Lew! Yes I'm with you and Henk, the ones with date and place were made for sure for Dutches, but if the golok is nice who minds? not me! Yours is very nice!!

Henk no problem at all, thank you for the input and the help!!

Who want to show his goloks? come on boy

[Maurice]

Originally Posted by Flavio

Who want to show his goloks?

Mine still in auction. when the auction is over I'll post a picture.

[Rick]

I'm not sure all of these Tjikeroeh Goloks went into tourist hands .

My example shows unmistakable signs of attack and parry .
Someone had to use it, and in a hurry .

[Lew]

Originally Posted by Rick

I'm not sure all of these Tjikeroeh Goloks went into tourist hands .

My example shows unmistakable signs of attack and parry .
Someone had to use it, and in a hurry .

Rick is quite right!

We really need to be careful when we apply the tourist label to older swords and daggers. These goloks are not cheap copies they were more likely sold to the local Dutch living and working or soldieringi in the area and were used as a back up side arm or hunting knife. I'm sure one of these goloks would come in quite handy when walking through a narrow dark street somewhere in these towns.
Btw,Here are two more from my closet top one seems mid 20th century the bottom is early 20th century.
Lew

[Henk]

Originally Posted by LOUIEBLADES

Rick is quite right!

We really need to be careful when we apply the tourist label to older swords and daggers. These goloks are not cheap copies they were more likely sold to the local Dutch living and working or soldieringi in the area and were used as a back up side arm or hunting knife. I'm sure one of these goloks would come in quite handy when walking through a narrow dark street somewhere in these towns.
Btw,Here are two more from my closet top one seems mid 20th century the bottom is early 20th century.
Lew

I fully agree. I don't apply the tourist label at once to these weapons. I think that these weapons where mainly made for the Dutch who brought these weapons to Holland as a souvenir or should we better say as a gift for friends and relatives. Dating and placing the name of a city on the blade wasn't an Indonesian habbit.
The Dutch working and living there used these weapons certainly as side arm or hunting knife. But I know that the Dutch also used the common local weapons for these activities. I don't think that there was any need for a weapon with a date on the blade.
The Tjikroe dated blades and other well known military souvenir keris where brought to Holland in the fifties by the young soldiers after service or during their leave.
Better see these weapons in historical perspective like the well known KNIL madura souvenir keris, with the wrangka as a lying lion and the ukiran in the shape of a woman or male figure, but with a real old keris blade. In my opinion these weapons certainly should be part of a collection referring to the historical KNIL period. Souvenir? Yes, and souvenirs aren't always cheap worthles stuff. Tourist? No!!

[sjors]

Here's another lionhead golok.
It's in a bad shape but this is how my parents brought it to the Netherlands in 1952. The original (silver?) bands on the scabbard were all gone and some were replaced by copper ones. The mouth of the scabbard is also gone and the (layered) blade has no markings. My father told me how he realy used it in Indonesia as a gardentool.