A very, very old Moro kris

[Ian]

As promised, here are the X-rays of the hilt. The various features visible on the X-ray are shown in the picture below, which was taken mainly to visualize the tang. The tang seems quite long compared with 19th C and more modern kris, tapers slightly from the blade to the end of the tang, and has a slight bend. Also apparent are the thick silver bands spaced along the handle. Looking at the pommel, it is interesting to note a drilled void within it that has been hollowed out to accommodate a peg from the handle which has been fixed to the pommel with a small nail or pin. The pin is visible on the exterior of the hilt and there is a small crack in the wood caused by its presence. The degree of detail in this picture is more than I had expected, although we experimented somewhat to get the desired contrast in the image.
The following table shows how the actual length and width of the tang can be calculated from a print out of the attached picture. Using a vernier micrometer, I measured the actual length of the the silver grip on the sword; this was 8.85 cm. I then measured the length of the same structure on the image; that was 7.85 cm. This meant that all linear dimensions on that X-ray image needed to be corrected by a factor of 8.85/7.85 in order to arrive at the correct linear measurement.

[Ian]

Here are the views obtained with rotation of the long axis of the sword. They show that tang width at various points along the hilt shows slight narrowing with progressive rotation from horizontal (0º) to vertical (90º), but not enough to suggest that this is a flat tang. The flattening is somewhat accentuated by the sword coming off the table as it was rotated, because of the effect of the gangya. Allowing for some parallax by referencing the width of the tang to the width of the cylindrical hilt at the same point, indicated little difference in width of the tang in each projection. This suggests a round tang IMHO.

Images have been rotated for ease of viewing the changes associated with rotation of the sword.

0º rotation (horizontal)



30º rotation



60º rotation



90º rotation (vertical)

[Sajen]

Hi Ian,

Great pictures! But I am not really sure if the tang is indeed round.

Regards,
Detlef

[David]

Originally Posted by Sajen

Hi Ian,

Great pictures! But I am not really sure if the tang is indeed round.

Regards,
Detlef

I agree. There really is only one way to be sure.

[Ian]

David and Detlef,

Geometry tells us that the only cross-section that produces a uniform width when viewed from several angles is a circle (or a circular object with many small facets). I believe the pictures show that this is not a flat tang, nor a square tang.

I would like to put it through a computerized tomography (CT) scanner, but those are expensive pieces of equipment found only in hospitals and radiology clinics and are not readily accessible. A CT scan would definitively answer if the tang was round in cross-section.

[kai]

Thanks for posting the digital X-ray pics, Ian!

I believe the pictures show that this is not a flat tang, nor a square tang.

Actually, I'm inclined to believe that this tang is close to square (with some tapering along its length) since the tilted pics (30°/60°) appear to show a slightly thicker tang than in orthogonal orientation (0°/90°).

Regards,
Kai

[A. G. Maisey]

If I were a gambling man --- which I'm not --- I think I might back the rectangular horse.

[Ian]

Originally Posted by kai

Thanks for posting the digital X-ray pics, Ian!


Actually, I'm inclined to believe that this tang is close to square (with some tapering along its length) since the tilted pics (30°/60°) appear to show a slightly thicker tang than in orthogonal orientation (0°/90°).

Regards,
Kai

Kai, the apparent diameters are a little misleading because of the different degrees to which I cropped the pictures (and thus the magnification is slightly different). Eyeballing the pictures shown is misleading because of this.

That is why it is necessary to reference the measured diameter of the tang to some other measurement (such as the width of the silver hilt at that point). When I standardize for the slight differences in magnification resulting from the differences in cropping, the diameters come out to within a fraction of a millimeter of each other. The only view which is slightly narrower than the others is the 90º one. Alan may be correct in thinking that the the tang is slightly flattened, but it is unlikely to be rectangular according to the measurements I made.

A CT scan would answer the question definitively.