Bugis Keris

[Jean]

Ouch, what is hidden under the piece of white cloth surrounding the"peksi"? It may give some clues about the welded ganja.
Regards

[David]

Ron, i would actually like to see a shot of the keris shot from the over top with the hilt and pesi wrapping material removed completely and the focus placed on the sirah-cecak (front bottom surface). I might be crazy, but to me it looks like the core of this blade actually extends all the way to the bottom and that additional material was then welded around the iras gonjo giving the appearance that an entire gonjo was welded on after the fact. Not sure if i am making sense with my description, but what i see in the part of the sirah-cecak that is visible looks very odd. If you are uncertain of the area i am asking you to photograph please see the gonjo diagram on Alan's website.
http://kerisattosanaji.com/kerisdiagram.html

[A. G. Maisey]

David, I feel that what we might see in the sirah cecak is that the layer of pamor has been taken back to leave just that odd looking island in the middle.

Ron, has the crack in the lower part of the hilt been filled with epoxy resin or a similar substance?

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

David, I feel that what we might see in the sirah cecak is that the layer of pamor has been taken back to leave just that odd looking island in the middle.

Ron, has the crack in the lower part of the hilt been filled with epoxy resin or a similar substance?

Certainly a possibility which is why i thought more detailed photos might tell.

[A. G. Maisey]

Agreed. We really do need to see the blade bare, this may not give us any more than we already have, but there are so many vague areas with this keris that every bit of clarification helps.

It is not unusual for a blade core to extend all the way through a blade, including to the tip of the pesi.

One scenario that that keeps recurring to me when I look at this complete keris is that at some time in the past, a dedicated but unschooled collector decided to "improve" what he had by permanently fixing the gonjo and upgrading the complete keris with the best components he could put his hands on.

In a way, this is more or less in line with indigenous keris ethics:- owners in all the keris bearing areas of SE Asia seem to have always upgraded their keris, and without paying much attention to the "correctness" or otherwise of the components. We tend to forget sometimes that the only place where it is essential to dress a keris correctly is in a formal palace situation.

Even in the palace situation I am certain that the "mix & match" principle sometimes took precedence. I know of a number of cases where members of the Surakarta Karaton hierarchy have combined keris components that were not strictly correct.

I have also handled keris that were WWII bring backs from SE Asia, and that were acquired in locations far removed from any central areas of authority, these have sometimes been quite peculiar in the combination of disparate components, and in two cases the combinations were ludicrous. But these were genuine, grassroots keris, straight out of a grassroots cultural setting.

To imagine for one instant that we can look at a complete keris that has been floating around for a while in places removed from its geographic point of origin and put a name/date/origin on it is rather optimistic to say the least.

What we can sometimes do is name possible geographic location of the various component parts of that complete keris, and we can often classify the blade in accordance with the accepted principles used by indigenous keris authorities.

[Spunjer]

best pics i can take tonite. hopefully this'll help.
Alan, it does look like there was a small crack and it was repaired using epoxy...

[A. G. Maisey]

Thanks Ron.

So, the hilt at least has been in the hands of somebody who has needed to improve upon what he had.

Looking at the final pic of the gonjo top, it seems that the gonjo was made separately and then welded into place.

There are a couple of ways that we could get this effect of the two different grain directions. The easy way for an indigenous craftsman using native technology would have been to forge weld a separate small forging across the end of the blade forging before shaping the blade.

If this was done, then the easy way to form the pesi would be to forge it out from that transverse piece of material.

However, this has not been done, the gonjo appears to be fitted in the normal way, by placing the pesi through the hole formed in the middle of the gonjo, but the difference here is that the gonjo is not mechanically fixed, it is welded into place.

It would be possible for a very highly skilled smith to forge weld a 90% finished gonjo into place. It would be a delicate operation, and with the forge technology available to indigenous smiths it would be extremely difficult. But it could be done.

The question is why would it be done? Why would any indigenous person want to deviate from 1000 years of normal practice and forge weld a gonjo rather than mechanically fix it?

The risk of damage to both the gonjo and the blade would be very, very high.

I simply cannot envisage any indigenous craftsman in his right mind undertaking such a job --- and that is even without considering the esoteric implications.

However, with the technology that has been available in the western world for a long time, it would not be such a daunting job. In fact, in a modern gas forge it could be forge welded fairly easily. Then we have all the other modern welding technologies.

My mind inevitably returns to the scenario of the very enthusiastic collector who has very little keris understanding.

In fact, let's take this one step further:- has the gonjo been welded into place, or has it been secured with something like one of the multitude of products that are marketed as "cold weld"? Once in place it could be very difficult to tell the difference between this sort of material and a real weld carried out with heat.

In Jawa for many years old blades with holes in them have been repaired with a mixture of iron filings and two part epoxy resin, when this is skilfully done it is well nigh impossible to see the repair, and my experience is that you need to suspect that a repair has been carried out, and then inspect the blade under magnification and direct sunlight in order to find the repair.