My latest Keris

[David R]

For someone without a special interest in such I do seem to accumulate pieces from this area.

I recently bought a stripped Keris blade from an online dealer, it arrived today, and now posted here for your perusal and comment..... The top piece is loose but does fit very closely, a pity and not mentioned in the sale description.

Next up I suppose is to dress it in a respectful manner.

[kai]

Hello David,

Looks like originating from the eastern Sumatran coast (including the Riau archipelago) to me.

Either classical Riau fittings or more generic Bugis-style fittings would go well with this blade.

Regards,
Kai

[Jean]

You should just glue the loose gonjo around the pesi, not a problem.

[A. G. Maisey]

I beg to differ Jean.

We do not glue gonjos.

We refix them with a key, if a key was used in the first place, or we use a nail punch with a relatively fine tip & punch the gonjo around the pesi so that we achieve a pressure fit.

Stylistically this blade would classify as Bugis, and usually Bugis gonjos are fitted by the punch method.

In any case, a gonjo is always a pressure fit.

[David R]

Thank you! I did a bit of digging and found what you were writing about... In the process learning a lot more about Keris!

[A. G. Maisey]

There is a lot out there to learn, David.

If you like learning, the keris question can keep you occupied for a very long time, I've been learning keris now since 1953, for most of that time I have focused on Javanese keris, and in my opinion, I'm not even halfway through the Javanese course.