Javanese Keris ID

A. G. Maisey · 14th August 2024, 09:59 AM

That's a good video, gives a real good idea of the forge work involved in producing the billet from which a keris is made, but this part of the process, although hot & heavy work, is the easy part, and the part that many makers are happy enough to farm out to somebody else.

Sometimes they supervise the smith & the strikers, sometimes not, just give instructions and pay for the end result.

The really difficult part of making a keris is the cold work, the carving.

I've made a few keris, the longest time it took me to produce a keris blade was 49 man-days, 8 & 10 hour working days.

Of those 49 days, there were 9 days spent on forge work, three men, a smith and two strikers, working for three days.

The balance of the time was spent on carving the keris.

It could have been carved more quickly if I had used electric tools, but I used all traditional tools, not electric.

There really is a lot of work in making a keris.

14th August 2024, 09:59 AM	#11
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,991	That's a good video, gives a real good idea of the forge work involved in producing the billet from which a keris is made, but this part of the process, although hot & heavy work, is the easy part, and the part that many makers are happy enough to farm out to somebody else. Sometimes they supervise the smith & the strikers, sometimes not, just give instructions and pay for the end result. The really difficult part of making a keris is the cold work, the carving. I've made a few keris, the longest time it took me to produce a keris blade was 49 man-days, 8 & 10 hour working days. Of those 49 days, there were 9 days spent on forge work, three men, a smith and two strikers, working for three days. The balance of the time was spent on carving the keris. It could have been carved more quickly if I had used electric tools, but I used all traditional tools, not electric. There really is a lot of work in making a keris.