keris blade for comment.

[Kiai Carita]

Captain Smash' keris from Bali looks very nice. It is a Bali keris like a Javanese keris of the dapur pasopati. The engraving and the carving is intended to be inlaid and wrapped with gold and might have been done anytime. Alot of new tourist keris are made this way. Usualy one would only get the engraving and carving done when one had the money for the gold or one had been given a promotion from the Raja (in Bali never have there been Sultans except visiting).

Although Sultan Agung gave kinatah emas (carved and then wrapped in gold) to everyone of the rank Bupati upwards to celebrate his victory over the kadipaten Pati (with the elephant-lion Gajah Singo symbol on the gandhik), Sultan Agung did not invent the laying of gold on kerises. I have seen Singosari keris with sinarasah (another technique of gold inlay in kerisology) and Singosari was the Java kingdom of 1222-1292, which was founded by Ken Arok who killed Mpu Gandring with the famously coursed unfinished keris.

The use of sandpaper and battery acids in cleaning a keris can very easily change the pamor. Opening the pamor (silak waja) should be done once by the Mpu as part of the prayer of the making of the keris which begins and ends with offerings to the gods. The use of warangan is mistakenly called etching but it is not etching as there is no intent of taking away any part of the blade surface but only to contrast the earthly iron from the heavenly meteorite. The pamor on this blade seems now to be uler lulut (tame caterpillar) believed to bring prosperity and make people believe the speach of the owner.

One traditional method of cleaning a keris is using a wooden trough soak the rusty keris in the water of several coconuts that have fermented for several days. To get this buy several coconuts that are still in their shells and thus still have the water in them. You should be able to hear the water when you shake the nut. Every nut would have between 1/4-1 cup of water in it. This is not coconut milk don't make a mistake and get coconut milk.

Every few days, take the blade out and scrub with lime. Rinse the blade and soak again in the same solution do not change it rather let it ferment further. It can take weeks to clean a very rusty keris but patience is a key component in kerisology.

In Bali lore the bull is assosciated with Andini and is the steed of Syiwa the king of the Gods. Tigers are assosciated with courage, military. In wayang stories Pasopati is one of the keris of the hero Arjuna who together with Krisna is the avatar of the God Wisnu.

I hope this post is useful,
Kiai Carita.