Keris malela in Bujangga Manik

rasdan · 6th March 2023, 03:07 AM

Hi Jaga,

It is rather difficult to say on quality as we need to match the quality level to the respective age and origin or tangguh of a keris.

Plus there is a problem on how a certain dhapur for certain keris origin/tangguh should ideally look like. Only people who have access to well preserved, high quality keris with known provenance will know this and there are a lot of pretenders out there.

Then there are varying qualities of wootz. I am sure the cost is going to be different. I think we cannot use wootz as an indicator of quality for keris.

Regarding the two keris I mentioned, in general, I think, I can say that both keris when they were new are of good quality. The Palembang is probably, probably the near top quality in Sumatera at the time it was made, but the Jawa one is probably just slightly above average, not top quality. It could be lower, but I have insufficient knowledge to say; I don't even know if it is really wootz because of the surface erosion.

6th March 2023, 03:07 AM	#7
rasdan Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Kuala Lumpur Posts: 369	Hi Jaga, It is rather difficult to say on quality as we need to match the quality level to the respective age and origin or tangguh of a keris. Plus there is a problem on how a certain dhapur for certain keris origin/tangguh should ideally look like. Only people who have access to well preserved, high quality keris with known provenance will know this and there are a lot of pretenders out there. Then there are varying qualities of wootz. I am sure the cost is going to be different. I think we cannot use wootz as an indicator of quality for keris. Regarding the two keris I mentioned, in general, I think, I can say that both keris when they were new are of good quality. The Palembang is probably, probably the near top quality in Sumatera at the time it was made, but the Jawa one is probably just slightly above average, not top quality. It could be lower, but I have insufficient knowledge to say; I don't even know if it is really wootz because of the surface erosion.