Molar hilt, sumatran keris for comments

[Gustav]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

I do not necessarily dislike geraham hilts.

They can be either good or bad, crude or refined. It is almost impossible to find a finely worked Javanese planar geraham hilt, but Bugis and Palembang styles are often quite finely worked. A couple of years ago I was offered two Bugis ones, that were as good as anything I have seen in ivory, regretably they were far too expensive, so I did not buy them.

The pic is of a geraham hilt on an odd little weapon in the Musium Radya Pustaka in Solo, Jawa Tengah. I've coveted this hilt since the first time I saw it more than 30 years ago.

Incidentally, that is not a new, or even recent, blade.

Dear Alan,

at the place, where my hilt has an eye, the hilt from museum shows a whole inscription!
A very interesting knife with very nice sheath. Funny to see these sort of tribal-art figures on the knife, the wayang (?) figure on the sheath and Jawa Demam as hilt, with javanese mendak.

And also, how similar the small figure on the knife and Jawa Demam are.