Jambiya plastic

[David]

Originally Posted by kahnjar1

Thank you David for this. I think that you have hit the nail on the head, and I hope that others here accept that as collectors, we seek ORIGINALITY and not some recently embelished alteration to an item, which may, in less honest hands become a fraudulent mis-representation.
Regards Stuart

Thanks Stuart, but i also hope that you can see that this issue cuts (yes, pun intended ) both ways. In the end i believe that it all depends upon the culture in which you operate and what your intentions for the blade will be. If your are operating within a culture where the tradition calls for upgrades and your intention is to use that blade for your own cultural purposes (as part of tradition wear or practice), then it seems perfectly legitimate to me to make appropriate upgrades. If, however, you are upgrading blades in order to create more pristine objects for sale to a collecting community, well, i think that is another story.
I suppose that in the end the old adage, caveat emptor, applies. If a particular blade form is of interest to you it is probably best to learn to recognize as best one can what an upgrade looks like. In the keris world we are often presented with newly dressed blades and it is completely acceptable. We understand that old blades most often out live wooden scabbards and also hilts. We also learn to recognize what a fairly original ensemble looks like. Sometimes we do struggle with knowing just how much the keris may have been upgraded. Have new features been carved? Has gold kinatah been added? Most times you can tell. Sometimes you cannot and simply have to decide if you like the keris enough to not care if it has been upgraded solely for resale purposes.