Yep. While i will pass no judgement on the material it could quite possibly be as you say. People don't always tell the truth. Go figure!
But it is that blade i find really interesting. As has been noted, i can't think of any picit blades outside of Jawa. Perhaps a few. Anybody? This blade had been in Frey's collection at least since the early 80s and probably longer. But it does not appear to be a Javanese blade to my eyes. I know nothing about the resurgence of keris production in Malaysia, only that it had been practically dead in Jawa post WWII until the 1970s when it got a kick start through the encouragement of people like Dietrich Drescher so i am inclined to think that this must be a pre-WWII blade at the very least. I would be interested in hearing if someone has a different interpretation, but i would not think that a blade like this would have been made between the time the war and the 1980s perhaps anywhere in Indonesia. I would be very interested to know if anyone is aware of a tradition of picit blades outside of Jawa.