My third Kris

[mpetr]

Here is the third kris that my father brought back from Solo, when he was working there in the early 1970s.

[mariusgmioc]

Hello,

I cannot tell you muck about your kris, but it seems the pendok (the brass cover of the scabbard) is wrongly fit.

Take it out and put it back rotated 180 degrees.

[A. G. Maisey]

A nice keris. Tilam Sari, Wos Wutah.

Slight concavity to front of gandhik, possibly somewhere to the west.

I'd need it in hand to classify but I am virtually certain that it is classifiable.


The pendok appears to be engraved, & it is on back to front, it should be removed & replaced with the engraved face on the other side of the wrongko, the top of the pendok will then meet the underside of the atasan(top cross piece of wrongko).

Ideally the hilt & mendak (hilt ring) should be removed, the blade stripped bare, should be drenched with WD40 and allowed to stand overnight, then it should be scrubbed with dishwash detergent & a hard toothbrush under warm running water, patted dry with a lint free cloth, drenched with WD40 again and allowed to stand over night, then apply fragrant oil and a plastic sleeve over the blade.

Mendak needs a good brushing with a soft toothbrush & perhaps soap & water, then dry with a hair dryer, put it onto a screwdriver shaft to hold it while blowing dry. Replace hilt & mendak using wool on the tang to provide a medium firm fit --- do not force the hilt on, you might crack it. Couple of spots of OCedar furniture oil or baby oil hand rubbed into the hilt, same treatment for the atasan of the wrongko.

If the pendok does not want to come off, heat it with a hair dryer and with a rubber glove on your hand grip firmly and apply consistent pressure. Possibly a light rub with 0000 steel wool, or maybe just a silver polishing cloth --- these cloths will clean brass as well as silver.

This keris does not appear to need restoration, just the light cleaning as outlined above.

The dress is absolutely correct Surakarta.

[Jean]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

The pendok appears to be engraved, & it is on back to front, it should be removed & replaced with the engraved face on the other side of the wrongko, the top of the pendok will then meet the underside of the atasan(top cross piece of wrongko).

I agree with Alan but the angle of the top of the pendok (slanted) does not match with the one of the gandar/ stem (perpendicular) so there will still be a gap between the pendok and the atasan on the front side unless you file the top of the pendok.
Regards

[A. G. Maisey]

Jean, I do not know how you measured the angle of deviation, but what I did in PS was to tilt the image 10 degrees left, then using the crop tool run a line across the top of the gandar. Then I tilted the image back to its original position.

I then tilted the image ten degrees to the right and ran the crop tool across the top of the pendok.

So, I figure that when I get a fair degree of agreement between the two surfaces with the same degree of deviation in order to meet a straight line, I'm going to get a fair degree of agreement when they do actually do meet.

I have not seen the other side of the wrongko and the only true way to test if we have an agreeable marriage is to rip the thing off and then whack it back on , right way around.

Yes, there might well be a degree of inadequacy in the meeting, but not so much that it could not be corrected, and if that were to be the case, well then, we just explain to mpetr how to fix it. The fitting of a pendok is of course a basic procedure that I believe every keris collector has done many times. One thing is certain, it cannot continue to live as it is at the moment.

[Jean]

I hope that mpetr will be able to remove the pendok and check the angle matching in the right position. After further checking it seems that it should be quite good from the pic

[A. G. Maisey]

Yeah, hopefully it will fit OK first go, but if it doesn't, its no big trick to make it fit.