Planning to make a wrongko

[rasdan]

You have very artistic hands Johan. I doubt I will ever be able to make a wrangka.

It is fun to imagine that this keris will someday continue to travel the world, and probably 100 years from now some keris "specialist" will classify your wrangka to a certain (or probably even a pinpoint) region in Sumatra whereas it is actually from South Africa.. Since you have the skills, probably you can come up with a slightly different design of the gambar - just to get those future "specialists" scratching their heads..

[Johan van Zyl]

Rasdan, of course it's not my intention to cause future keris archeological havoc, but I am laughing merrily at the scenario you sketched. You suggest I make the gambar in my own signature style, but let me tell you it's going to come out like that even if I don't mean it. At least I can attest that I have TRIED to follow all the kind pieces of advice the forum guys have proposed til now.

[Johan van Zyl]

I'm sorry to burden you all with more pics of my project so soon (I know there's lots more important stuff going on in our forum members' collections & discussions) but I'm feeling like a kid now, who's just won a big prize. The reason I say this is that I've been dreading the moment of joining the gandar to the gambar. What if I don't do it correctly & accurately and the join looks sloppy? Well, the job went well & I've got a burden off my shoulders! So I'd like to share my method with you, not to brag about my success but because I'm so relieved. I've got new enthusiasm now for the endless sanding procedure to make the join look neat on the outside.

The four pics will show. First I made a few cardboard templates and experimentally clipped holes into them that correspond to the four bambu pins in the gandar. From these I selected the one that fits best. Then I transferred the hole marks onto the end of the gambar with a pencil, following which I drilled pilot holes into the gambar. Of course, I had to secure the gambar on the vertical drill press platform and make sure the drill holes are made perpendicularly into the gambar join face. Then I changed to a bigger drill bit and expanded the pilot holes. You'll see from the 3rd & 4th pics that I have some reason to be elated. The epoxy has not been applied yet, there will come a time for that. Alan's suggestion will also still be put into practice.

I excitedly explained the steps I followed to my 82 year old sister living with us, and she had the following to say: "What a beautiful pink colour the wood is!" Pink indeed.

[rasdan]

Originally Posted by Johan van Zyl

You suggest I make the gambar in my own signature style, but let me tell you it's going to come out like that even if I don't mean it.

Actually I think this is part of a natural process going on. It is very probable that a majority of wrangka (and also blade) styles what we currently have throughout the keris region is a result of copying. And copying form copies that also produces different designs along the way whether the maker realise or not. Anyhow thank you for sharing your project with us.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes Rasdan you are so right.

Once the keris moves away from a major area of influence we can get enormous variation in dress styles. When it moves into a village environment the dress can sometimes not look anything like the dress that we find in the nearest major town, city or kraton.

Then we get the opinions.

At Candi Panataran near Blitar in East Jawa, there is a relief carving of a man with a keris, and the scabbard of that keris looks exactly like the type of scabbard that we recognise as Bugis now. The keris spread from Jawa to other places, so what did 14th century Javanese scabbards look like?

Yep, copying.

[rasdan]

I totally agree with you Alan. Creativity can go a long way it seems. Below is a picture of a statue that our fellow forumite Gustav uploaded a while ago.

I had forgotten the origin/age of this statue, (can Gustav or other forumite please help me on the origin of this one?) do you think the warangka relief at candi Panataran matches this warangka type Alan? This one looks like it is a sheath for keris buda. Even the top of the gonjo can be seen.

[Gustav]

It's in Museum Nasional in Jakarta, attributed to 15. cent. The proportions of the statue are quite cobby (especially the upper part of body), so it doesn't necessarily tell us about about the true proportions of Keris also. The sheath already looks similar to some older sheaths from European "Kunstkammer" collections.

[A. G. Maisey]

I would hesitate to guess what might be in it Rasdan. It is probably not a photographic representation, and as Gustav has said, it does have some features that echo early scabbards in European collections.

Here are another couple, ladrangans this time, from Candi Sukuh.

[rasdan]

Thank you Gustav and Alan. If the statue in the National Museum is also 15th century we cannot possibly be looking at buda keris on that statue. Another thing that interests me with that one is the selut that it used. Very similar with the ones we see in old bugis keris style.

It is very interesting to see that ladrangan style is already around in Candi Sukuh (15th century I think). I always have thought that ladrangan is a more recent style.

[A. G. Maisey]

Rasdan, I don't think that we can say whether or not the keris in the scabbard on that statue is Buda, however, the fact that it is a 15th century statue does not automatically rule out the form of the keris.

Yes, we refer to keris that we believe came from Pre-Islamic Jawa as "Keris Buda", but that does not mean that Keris Buda were never made and used in later eras. Even Mpu Pauzan made a few keris Buda, and lesser current era makers have also produced them. Similarly, Islam did not just automatically dominate Jawa after the collapse of Majapahit, it took a long time to get almost total domination. Even today, that domination is not complete, the people of the Tengger still cling to the old Pre-Islamic traditions, in fact in some ways the Tengger traditions reflect very early indigenous beliefs.We also have the Badui of Sunda.

Then there is the artistic dictate that the carver may have used an earlier style to reflect what the rest of the subject depicted.

The keris in the scabbard might be a KB, or might not, but we cannot even guess what the carver had in mind, based upon what we can see

[rasdan]

Thanks Alan, I just remembered that you had mentioned somewhere about this. Keris buda that were made after the pre-Islamic times and still produced at current time.

Unlike other talismanic items that are still made to be talismanic, I think current keris Buda were made for the collectors market with just money in mind. For what reason in your opinion that older keris buda (between early Islamic and before keris collectors exists - which is another interesting topic) were made for?

[A. G. Maisey]

Not really for the collector market Rasdan, at least, not in the way that we now think about collecting. People at the top of the tree in Solo from the 1970's through to the not so distant past held the opinion that keris which were made in the style of earlier periods were made as a token of respect to the makers of the past. Thus, a keris of say, Mojo style could be made during the Pajang era, not as an attempt to create a forgery, but as a token of respect to a previous maker.

Pauzan made a number of keris in styles from past eras --- KB's, betoks, Matarams --- it was never an attempt to deceive, it was always homage to past, and also to demonstrate his skill. I even made one keris in a past style, and using material that would place it as a past style. I did this just to show that I could do it.

At the present time some of the most artistic keris of the current era have been made in the KB style.

In respect of the idea "before collectors exist", I just don't know when that might be where keris are concerned. Bear in mind, Javanese noble men had very limited ways in which to store wealth. One of the acceptable ways was to store wealth in keris, this is probably the foundation stone of the Solonese tangguh system. Keris collecting and collectors have been around for a very long time.

[Johan van Zyl]

If I may interrupt Rasdan and Alan's very interesting discussion for a moment, let me show the latest pic of my nearly completed project. What comes to my mind is the following: WYSIWYG = What you see is what you get. It pertains to me, as I cannot at this stage effect any more big changes, and it pertains to the longsuffering forum members who have accompanied me on this "trip", as this wrongko might be disappointing and did not rise to the high expectations you might have had. But if I may say boldly, the wrongko actually looks better than in this poor photograph.

The four pins plus Alan's suggestion has made this epoxied joint very strong and I had no fear of it breaking as I sanded. What now needs to be done, is the application of the varnish. That is to say, if it is your suggestion that I varnish this wood. I recall reading that a Bugis wrongko should be stained red and then varnished (if I recall correctly). If you have more or other advice for me, please let it come. I await your kind final inputs. (Some of the pictures of wrongkos I saw seemed to be oiled or waxed.)

[Rick]

I think shellac will give you a nicer finish.

[kai]

Hello Johan,

That doesn't look bad at all! Certainly not a perfect copy and with some shortcomings for traditionally minded connoisseurs. More than adequate clothes for your keris though - you can certainly be proud having done this with a tough wood which seems to have quite nice figuring, too!

Traditional finish for keris is shellac (no multiple layers needed); make sure to fill the pores with wood dust during the final polishing steps!

The color is probably close to Kemuning limau (yellow kemuning wood); you could leave it as is if you prefer this color.

You could also utilize some spare bits of the same wood for testing whether using boiled linseed oil first and shellac later will make both woods looking even better.

Regards,
Kai

[A. G. Maisey]

That's actually not too bad Johan, you've got the overall form pretty good, it looks like what it is intended to be. We must never forget that even in the societies where these things came from, not everybody was a master.

Your efforts to date are good Johan.

I will offer the following:-

1) you can only have two sorts of lines:- a straight line or a part of a circle; lumps, bumps, wandering lines are definitely not permitted, and that applies to any sort of work of this nature.

2) the heavy ridge that interrupts smooth transition from the face to the top of the piece must go, the face of the wrongko from its lower edge to the top where the surface turns inward should be a smooth curve, in other words a part of a circle --- a very large circle, but a circle just the same. This "part of a circle " idea has been quoted as a dictum for as long as people have made things, but what nobody ever seems to point out is that it is really "parts of circles", for example, in a long curve you can get variation in the progression of the curve, each part of the curve can reflect a different radius, but even so, that curve must be a smooth progression, so that you cannot see the change in radius, the effect is that if the curve is extended it becomes ovoid, rather than circle. You point this out to a purist and you get told that an ovoid reflects a changing circle, or over-lapping circles. Anyway, however you look at it, curves must be smooth.

3) sanding could be taken to about 600 - 800 grit, and then the grain must be raised with steam and polished off with 0000 steel wool, until it does not raise anymore; you want a perfectly polished surface before you apply the finish. A steam iron is easy to use for the steam.

4) the traditional finish for a Javanese wrongko is french polish, usually the Javanese m'ranggis will only use a maximum of 5 or 6 coats, and then rub back with rotten stone, and finish with a particular type of rough leaf, the reason for this is that they believe too many coats detracts from the beauty of the wood grain. This might be true, because of the way they do the job, but a true french polish can enhance wood grain up to, and even beyond, a piano finish of say 16 and upwards coats. You need to apply a french polish in a figure of eight pattern.

5) I do not know what the traditional finish on Bugis and Peninsula wrongkos was. It looks like it might have been shellac, but in my experience old Bugis style wrongkos exhibit a surface that looks very like well patinated polished wood. Newer ones seem to have a pretty crude sort of varnish that sometimes lifts and leaves bare patches:- poor quality material, inexpertly applied and very ugly. OK for a row boat or outside timber, but not for cabinet work or an artisan product, and a wrongko is an artisan product.

6) if you do not want to go the full "traditional" route, Danish Oil or similar, applied with a rubber (fine cotton/linen pad filled with cotton wool) and run up to maybe five coats, polished off between coats with 00 steel wool, and final coat lightly polished off with 0000 steel wool, then waxed, will give a very, very close imitation of a nicely aged traditional finish.

A good finish to any wood is in the preparation Johan. I avoid using fillers if at all possible and use the finish material as the filler, it’s a slower process, but in my opinion gives a much superior job. Do not skimp on the preparation.

[Johan van Zyl]

Thank you, all - you have once again given me much to ponder on. And while I ponder, it is a good hint that I use the time wisely, to carry on even further with the preparation of the wood before shellacking or oiling or whatever needs to be done. I'll practice on spare wood as you suggest.

I have already attached the little rim of the buntut, and it looks cool. Please give me a few days for completion, then I'll try to post a few really nice final pics.

(The Bugis keris seemed very satisfied with its "dress" as I slid it in. So much so that I even had to coax it gently with my thumb to get it out again!)

((Yes, yes, you're right, that's just me bragging! Well, at least the fit is good.))

[A. G. Maisey]

Johan, Danish Oil, and similar products are not really like the old time wood finishing oils such as linseed oil. They dry hard and polymerise into a solid state. Don't think that linseed or other ordinary oils can be substituted, you have a lot of adhesive in that wrongko, it should not be exposed to the risk of oil penetration.

[Johan van Zyl]

What I understand from this last post of yours, Alan, is that you're saying boiled linseed oil is better than Danish oil and preferable to use on this wrongko.

It so happens I have a supply of fresh boiled linseed oil and if I can use that, it saves me a lot of searching for the other products. To my knowledge boiled linseed oil is also called "London oil" and very preferable for new rifle stocks of walnut and other fine woods, in the best of stockmaking tradition.

My son and sister were dismayed to read that you want the raised edge removed, because they liked it very much! But I will have to disappoint them and sand down the ridge. Maybe I'll keep just a hint of a ridge. And the semicircular end needs to be thinned down. And the line needs to be thinned also. Me, I'm happy for these final comments and I am going to put in a few more hours.

[A. G. Maisey]

Johan, I am saying the complete opposite:-

DO NOT USE LINSEED OIL ON THIS PIECE OF WOODWORK

I apologise if my English was unclear.

This wood is glued together, linseed oil is a penetrating oil, if it penetrates to the glued joints, particularly in the joints in the gandar, those joints are likely to separate.

Use Danish oil

do not use linseed oil

~~~~~~~~~~

I've used linseed oil, both raw and boiled, on rifle stocks, and it gives a good finish, but it will penetrate wood, depending on the type of wood, sometimes quite deeply, it must never be used on wood with glued joints.

[Rick]

If I might chime in, I wouldn't recommend urethane either, not mineral nor water based.

I'd still recommend shellac thinned out with grain alcohol and applied lightly and the surface made smooth between coats. Shellac, being made from insects somehow just seems to look much nicer than a spar varnish or urethane.

I think using shellac gives a better looking finish, especially with a little wax to top it off.

[A. G. Maisey]

I agree with you Rick.

French polish is only the application of a number of coats of shellac, the right way is to do it is with a rubber all the way, but it can be short cut by using a brush first and then finishing with a rubber.

However, for somebody who has never used shellac before, either brushed or used as french polish, it is not really all that easy to get a decent job. That's where Danish oil comes in:- its quick, its easy, with minimum care it gives a very good job, and used the way I've explained, the final appearance is just like a well preserved old wrongko.

No dispute at all that shellac is the best finish, but for a beginner it is not the easiest finish, not by a long shot.

Danish Oil and Scandinavian Oil are similar, and depending on the brand you can get different mixes in the ingredients. Some of these oils have a urethane component, some don't. I actually dislike urethanes, even for floors, on a floor I prefer tung oil, but it is virtually impossible today to get genuine tung oil, the stuff they sell as tung oil has urethanes in it, its just that it behaves like tung oil and looks like tung oil when it dries. Straight urethane I would never use for anything, but where these wood finishing products are concerned, although they might have urethane in them, they behave like a very quick drying oil, and the finish is nothing at all like any urethane that I've ever seen.

Another oil I used to use a lot was Birchwood Casey Stock Oil, it gave a really beautiful finish that looked for all the world like a top London gun finish. It dropped off the market here is Oz for a few years, and I never used it again after it became available again, mostly because I'd pretty much stopped doing high class rifle stocks by the time it appeared again. The couple of expensive stocks I did after that I did with linseed.

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Another oil I used to use a lot was Birchwood Casey Stock Oil, it gave a really beautiful finish that looked for all the world like a top London gun finish. It dropped off the market here is Oz for a few years, and I never used it again after it became available again, mostly because I'd pretty much stopped doing high class rifle stocks by the time it appeared again. The couple of expensive stocks I did after that I did with linseed.

I can second the Birchwood Casey Stock Oil. I've used it with great success. Frankly i haven't tried to look for it here in the States for a while so i don't know if it is still available.

[David]

I just checked and it does still seem to be easily available in numerous location.

[Rick]

Well, I will add a caveat about Danish oil; all the woodwork in my house is finished with the stuff and I do like it and can't disagree with Alan about ease of finish.
But..
This is very important: after you have used this product please dispose of any rags soaked in it in a bucket of water, for they may well combust if cautions are not taken.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yeah, you're dead right on the rags Rick. They have warnings all over the tins of the stuff that I use. But that's only a pretty recent thing. I've used all sorts of wood finishing products since I was in my early teens, my father used the stuff before me --- it was his job --- he never mentioned that there was a danger from those used rags, and I never knew about the inherent danger until quite recently.

David yeah, that's the stuff , easy to use, great finish. Its not a problem to get here now, when I said it dropped out of sight for a while I was talking ancient history, I think it maybe about 40 years ago that I was not able to get it. Prior to that I was buying it from a gunsmith, I think he was probably importing it himself, anyway, he died and I couldn't find another source. But these days you can buy the stuff anywhere --- well, any gunshop.

[Johan van Zyl]

I've done a lot of reading up on products that are available here in my neck of the woods, that conform closest to the excellent suggestions you all have been making with regard to my nearly completed Bugis wrongko project. Come Wednesday I will be browsing the hardware shops in my area to get something suitable to do the job. There's a product called Rustins Danish Oil in South Africa, and also a Woodoc product called Antique Wax. One of the specs is that it does not affect glue or joints. It also "builds up an authentic patina on the wood surface". I'll see what I can get.

I've been doing some thinking as a result of this project of mine, and I am getting ideas and notions and insights that could only have come because of my daily involvement with it. I have been truly engrossed in the task and as a consequence more things are making sense to me.

For instance, having succeeded in making a passable fit of Bugis blade to wrongko, I have gone back to my Java keris with its gambar, and I now find that it is inconceivable that that keris was made for that gambar. The fit is not as good as mine (in fact it's quite bad), which must of necessity mean they could not have been made for one another by and old-time m'ranggi. I do believe the poor fit is a dead give-away.

A further conclusion is that the Java ladrang gambar and its current gandar and pendok do not belong to one another. Recall that I wrote in a much earlier thread that I received the two kerisses with their hilts properly in place, but accompanied by a separated gambar and two gandars, one covered with a brass pendok. It was pure luck that I correctly assigned the ladrang gambar to the Java keris and attached the pendok-covered gandar to it, but in reality the difference in quality of the gambar and pendok is too great for them to be a match. (Of course in our thread discussions you all have gently indicated as much, but it comes through strongly to me now.)

I am reassured in that you all have pointed out that mismatches are common and it need not distract from the Java keris and its current dress that I own.

[Johan van Zyl]

Having purchased the special antique wax by Woodoc, conforming closest to your kind advice given so kindly by you all, I have applied two coats and have given the scabbard a good rubbing. Here are some final pics, but I am not satisfied by the quality of the pics, whilst I so wish you could see the deep gloss & highlights that appear on the wood. This does not mean that I am totally chuffed with the choice of wood for the gambar, but there it is now. Please consider that the scabbard looks better than on the pics!
My wife is waiting in the corridor with a list of work I need to do for her, now that the workshop is available once more - worse luck!

[A. G. Maisey]

It looks pretty OK Johan, not a real bad job at all. Room for improvement, certainly, but for a first attempt from a base of nothing, it comes close to brilliant.

HOWEVER

Wax is used to enhance and protect an already finished surface, it is most definitely not suitable as a finish applied to bare, unsealed, unfinished wood.

If you wish to correctly finish your wrongko you must now remove the wax, resand and whisker, then use Danish Oil or similar, or shellac as Rick has advised.

Wax by itself is NOT a finish.

The manufacturers of the wax you have used say as much, and I would be surprised if this is not also shown on your tin of wax:-

https://www.woodoc.com/en/products/woodoc-antique-wax

[Johan van Zyl]

After reading your post, Alan, I laughed at myself awhile. I admitted to myself for the umpteenth time that - verily - there does not exist a substitute for experience. Oh well, at least I did not do irreversible damage to the scabbard. When my dear wife's jobs are done, I can go the shellac way. (Searching for a Danish oil product was totally fruitless.)

This has been a wonderful experience for me, making the scabbard, and during all this time on this thread I have been the recipient of all your kindness, helpfulness and knowledgeable hints & advice. I thank you!

To end off the thread with a few philosophical words from me, I can say this home-made scabbard, however aesthetically imperfect as you all agree, does add character to my Bugis Riau keris. You will agree that if a person who truly knows kerisses looks at it for the first time, he is sure to remark that this scabbard, although a recent non-Indonesian replacement, was made specifically for this keris. I have a feeling that not very many antique kerisses in collections still have scabbards that they can call their very own.