Would appreciate help identifying a Kris
 

Hi all,

Just inherited a Kris (or Keris - what's the proper name?) and would very much appreciate help in identifying where it came from and maybe a few tips on restoring the pamor and the grip. The blade was very badly rusted when I got it and so I used a fantastic product if found on the internet called Evapo-Rust which removed the rust without attacking the metal at all. I'm quite impressed with it and would recommend it to anyone who want's to remove rust without harming the blade. Anyway, I'm attaching pictures (I'm not a pro photographer so please forgive me if they are not the best) and I hope you can help.

I believe the grip and blade are probably contemporary to perhaps the turn of the last century but I think that the scabbard is more recent (probably 1960's-ish). Any help you folks can provide would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Best Regards,
Tim

Hello Tim,

I think that nearly all parts of this keris are old respectively antique. Old 11 luk blade, hilt from Cirebon, Ganesha style, sheat ladrang Solo style, pendok blewah have a maduran touch.
What is the material in front of the sheat?
You can show a picture how the blade fits inside the sheat?

Nice start to collect keris.

Regards,

sajen

I dare say the blade is a mite bit older than turn of the last century. :)
If you use the search function you should find quite a good number of threads on restoration of keris blades.
Kris is probably as proper as keris, but on these forums the tendency is to use "keris" for the Indonesian blades and "kris" when discussing Moro swords of that name. :)

I'd agree . ;)
Old .
Might stain up nicely . :)

Yes, this is an old keris , no doubt of it. Definitely pre-dates 1850, and probably goes back a long time before that.

I'm impressed with that Evapo Rust product. Never heard of it. I'd like to see it in action, might be even better than pineapple juice.

The scabbard and hilt probably don't need much more than a sympathetic clean-up, and maybe replacement of that piece of patterned vinyl (?) with some red velvet --- or even leave the wood bare if it looks OK. To clean up the hilt use baby oil and a toothbrush followed by a good hand rub. The scabbard wood really only needs a touch up with furniture polish, the metal on the scabbard (pendok) will polish OK with chrome polishing wool or paste.

All in all this is a pretty fair old keris.

The blade stain --- if you feel inclined to attempt it --- is another matter.

Thanks to all for your terrific information and quick replies! This is very exciting for me as I have wanted a nice old Kris for years but have never had enough extra cash to buy a decent one. I'm very pleased to hear that you all believe it to be rather old - it makes it all that more of a great piece to me to know it has had a long and (I'm sure) cherished history as a weapon and as an hierloom.

I'm attaching two more pictures as requested of the fit of the blade into the sheath and a close-up of the "stuff" on the front of the sheath. Don't know what it is really but it does almost look like vinyl or plastic of some sort. Or maybe a very exotic veneer coated with a laquer of some kind.

Anyway, thanks again for all your help. Next I'll post a rather interesting 18th C? flintlock pistol and see what you all have to say!

P.S. That Evapo Rust stuff can be found at http://www.evapo-rust.com/ if you're interested. It's truely amazing!

That top view of the scabbartd shows that the condition and fit is not quite as good as we might have hoped for, but still, its more or less OK. The choice is to do a complete renovation, or to just clean and tidy it up a bit. My choice would be to just clean and tidy.

Thanks for the link on the Evapo Rust.

Too expensive I'm afraid. Yep, it reads like good stuff, but I can do the same job with pineapple juice for much lower cost.

I'm in Australia, maybe its cheaper in the USA, in which case it would bear consideration.

Thanks :) :)
Great news :)

Thanks again to all for the help you've provided. One last question though. Can anyone give me a valuation or at least an insurance estimate of what this piece would be worth? I'm so confused by what I see on the internet as far as what some people want for "antique" kris and they never even define what "antique" means! If this blade is truly dating to pre-1850's, is there a way to put an approximate value on it?

Seriously gentlemen, i believe most of you know better. This discussion of value will not take place on this forum.

Sorry! :o