Beneath all that rust...

[BluErf]

... is a rather interesting pamor. Tumpal keli, I think.

Finally got this rusty old blade washed. Blade is in Sulawesi sheath and hilt. The dapur on this blade is very Javanese, but closely resembles another Sulawesi keris, which is clearly Bugis.

The not so Bugis keris.
http://www.kampungnet.com.sg/modules.php?set_albumName=album78&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php

and the obviously Bugis brother.
http://www.kampungnet.com.sg/modules.php?set_albumName=albuq22&op=modload&name=gallery&file=index&include=view_album.php

[Battara]

Beautiful pattern. Very happy to see pieces come back to life. :)

REALLY love the Bugis brother. :D

[BluErf]

Glad you liked the Bugis brother. He's a big bruiser. :)

But strangely, the Javanese-esque brother appeals more to me. Perhaps it's the overall aesthetics of that piece, with the unusual hilt and less common sheath form. The hilt and sheath combination was probably original (though I can't say the blade is original to the hilt and sheath) because no other hilts 'look correct' on that sheath. :) The interesting pamor and good ricikan on the blade helped a bit with the preference too.

The pamor looked rather haphazard, and yet there is a pattern to it. I really wonder how the empu or pandai keris made it. On some parts of the blade, I see pamor lines criss-crossing with others. Hence, I even thought the pamor was going to be some interesting 'X' pamor. Yet, after application of waranga, only 1 set of pamor lines turned white; the other set turned black. Makes one go: hmmm....