Jawa Keris for ID

[David]

Not sure your really need any more info here, so i am just chiming in to say that like Alan i like this keris.
I also agree with Alan that i would not change this hilt and also agree that it is marine ivory of some sort. One way of telling it is not elephant ivory is that elephant will usually display Schreger lines and i do not see any here. I have posted an image that shows what these Schreger lines look like.
One thing for sure, the hilt certainly is not wood.
While it is not really possible to tell for sure just from a photograph, it does appear that the "selut" is indeed silver. The motifs are unfamiliar to me though.

[Rick]

This is Tagua nut. I purchased this in a little village in the Darien some years ago.
These are pictured at about 2x magnification.
Now, if only we could genetically modify the plant to produce nuts of a suitable size maybe it would put a dent in the ivory trade.

[A. G. Maisey]

I had heard about vegetable ivory a long time before I understood what it was or saw any, then in the 1980's exquisite little Chinese or Japanese carvings began to appear in (mostly) jewellers' shops in Sydney, I bought a couple, but they were expensive.

In the 1990's --- I think --- somebody must have dumped a container load of tagua nuts in Bali and the Balinese outcarved any of the carvings I had seen in Sydney. The market was flooded in Bali. The prices hit rock bottom. I bought a lot.

At the moment these are packed away because of house repairs, when they come out of the bubble wrap I'll post some pics.

[Rick]

Tagua was also used to make shirt buttons; most likely replaced by a synthetic these days.

[A. G. Maisey]

Never knew that.