Metuk (Iras) as an indicator of quality

[Kulino]

Hello Kai,
I checked the correspondence I had some thirty year ago with Peter van Hien the grandson of the writer of De Javaansche Geestenwereld. ( The Javanese world of spirits- 1896), https://archive.org/details/dejavaanschegee01hiengoog ) considered him an ahli keris. His grandfather had trained him in the kejawen way. At that time he was, as an abdi dalem, in close contact with Yogja kraton perawat keris. When I asked him about the kinatah keris he replied among others with a quote of the Babad Tanah Jawi (I tried to re trace the quote but couldn’t find it in my translated copy…. https://serbasejarah.files.wordpress...anah-djawi.pdf):
‘During Mataram time golden ricikan were applied on the ganja indicating status, for panewu mantri lions and elephants, for princes and patih dalam there were orchids.’
He mentions more like ricikan: for wedana kaliwon, lunglungan and ron-ron-an… but it is sometimes hard to decipher his handwriting. (Mind you, this was before the computer age )
Looking at this quote, the orchids on both tumbak should point at a decent quality.

I’m not sure the tumbak without metuk once had one. Looking at the spine of the blade, the diameter simply doesn’t allow for anything circular to be placed at the pesi without sticking out dramatically. But a tombak without anything like a metuk?

Best,
Kulino