New Balinese Kersi got

[HughChen]

Originally Posted by milandro

I'd be very cautious in doing DIY things, not only because it isn't easy but also because the whole point is to do things in the correct way if you have to do that at all!

Even if (and I've done so a couple of times) you commission these dresses in Indonesia of course an artisan in Bali or Madura may have an interpretation of a kris made in a different tradition that ends up being incorrect. The same goes for any other part of the kris.

There are tutorial videos on YouTube but again, I would be VERY careful that the person that you may commission this in China would not only understand what to do but also would do it matching correctly a blade from Bali to a Balinese dress and hilt and ring or a Sumatran Kris to a Sumatran dress and attributes.

The best thing to do is to buy things which are not in need of any replacement.

Restorations too can be a fool's errand if you don't know what you are doing.
There is the case of this famous young guy Alec Steele who bought a kris on line (incomplete) and proceeded to " restore" the thing.


It was a complete pointless thing. The kris (which he said was ancient , 15th century, or so he was told ) had no ganja to start with (and finish) then he made an hilt (resembling a sajen kris) which he glued to the kris (!) he put no mendak there....


Be also very careful if you are entertaining the thought of staining your blades.

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

A long time ago, like 70 years ago & more, I had the idea in my head that I wanted to get every keris ever made. Yeah, silly, I know, but I was only a little kid & I knew next to nothing. But anyway, what I did manage to do was buy every keris I came across, provided I didn't need to rob a bank to get the cash --- yeah, banks used to keep cash behind the counter back in the dark ages. I bought keris & all things related to keris. A lot of the keris I bought did not have scabbards. There was a lot more keris & other edged weapons floating around in pawn shops & auctions & antique shops back in the 1950's & 1960's in Australia than there are now.

If we have an example to follow, it is not a real difficult job to carve a gayaman or sandang walikat scabbard, & it is an easy job to make a gandar. If we already have the atasan --- top part of the scabbard --- it is not difficult to fit it to a different blade to the one that it was made for.

These are not difficult jobs, but they are tedious and you do need to be able to handle tools.

The work I have done in making, repairing & fitting scabbards for blades is not up to the standard of the craftsmen in Jawa & Bali & other places who do this for a living, but it is for the most part better than fair, & for maybe the last 40 years it is indistinguishable from work done in Indonesia. But it takes me about ten times as long as it takes a working tukang wrongko.

Restoration of blades is not at all difficult, but this is something that you need training for. Simple stuff like cleaning up edges, making a new gonjo, I think most people with some tools skill can handle that, staining takes time to learn, everything else you need training for.

I would encourage people to not be afraid to try. Start on little things, work carefully, work slowly, do the research. If one does not live in Indonesia or visit regularly, it can be quite difficult to get decent restoration work done, & I believe that for most people, it is not such a difficult thing to learn how to do things oneself.

I think without a scabbard might be not-so-good but not unacceptable. scabbards are vulnerable.

[milandro]

I have endeavoured to provide any incomplete kris that I have bought with the most coherent and hopefully , correct, attributes.

One such example I have disclosed and discussed in a thread here

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=29008


I think this was my most successful project.

but it is by no means an easy task done at a distance.

It is possible to buy semi finished products on line but, as far as I know this is only possible with Solo and Jogjakarta warangkas ( you can buy hilts and rings on line of various styles, qualities and price). But to obtain a Balinese dress I had to commission the entire thing from scratch and it was made on Bali.

I had done this before with a Melayu dress (which I have sold since then) and familiarised both the process of providing measurements to the artisan.

Upon completion however adjustments were needed and I have had someone here in the NL to help me with it.