sandalwood keris handle
 

I've recently aquired this two keris handle....
A very nice examples of a craftmanship, beautiful carving, nice wood colour.

Any body in this forum can shoe me another example of sandalwood keris handle?
I'd like to compare the soft wood grain and the colour.
It should show some different between a new made handle ( my keris handle) to an old sandalwood keris handle.

regards,
Ferry ( Jakarta, Indonesia)

Pak Ferry, unfortunately, sandalwood, despite it's good,fine grain and fragrance, is not a usual material in older handle. Most of old handle usually made of Tayuman, Kemuning or Trikancu, among other. Sandalwood is, unfortunately, a little bit rare, perhaps because of it's lack of hardness or tends to chip easier, compared to other wooden material.

Thanks a lot, you re right.
most old handle would made of Tayuman or Kemuning .
I will keep my sandalwood handle . not fot using it as a hilt, but I just love the aroma . I manage to order a sandalwood Surakarta gayaman. people said sandalwood warangka is hard to find. is it all right to use sandalwood as warangka? is it gonna chip easily like those used as hilt?
aramatic sandalwood will make the keris smell good I guess...
I have a keris in sandalwood gayaman an it smell just like the warangka..nice smell. the aroma beat the keris oil.

I really like the wood pattern on sandalwood gayaman, more rubbing to the wood surface will appear the grain more and more....darker.
Its quite hard to find sandalwood these days...I really meant it. aromatic sandalwood might cost US$50 per kg that for the wood only with a risk of damage wood( black spots etc) .
I have to make an enquery with other keris lover just to get a nice saldalwood(CENDANA) warangka...took me a month to acquire a warangka.

Yes, sandalwood is among the 3 most-preferred wood for wrangka/sheath. (others are timoho and trembalo). What I really meant with 'chip' was 'crack'.

To get the fragrance of sandalwood on Timoho/Trembalo wrangkas you can use sandalwood as the gandar part. It gives the same effect as if you use the sandalwood as wrangka. Of course, the trick won't work on gandar iras :)

In Jogjakarta, this 'trick' usually applied to the pusakas, mostly which once belongs to royal families. So it is worth to take a look at the gandar, if you find a 'suspected' keris. At least it shows what the keris was really meant to the previous owner. If the keris and wrangka is an original match, of course :)

wow....this is something new for me.
Thanks Boedhi..........

Cendana wangi is a beautiful wood to keep a keris in. The softness and level of oiliness is very kind to a blade. However, the scent of sandalwood dies in a cold climate. I have a number of warangka, and a couple of small carvings made out of wangi, and once they get back to Australia, the scent just dies. I also have a small box that is lined with wangi, and the scent in that is still there, but it is very, very, very faint. Nothing like the scent in Indonesia.

chip/crack on candana wangi
 

I have an axample of candana wood in a spear sheath.
there are several crack on the surface...as time goes by the wangi / aroma went away. people said I might bring back the smell by gentle rubbing using sandpaper . is it true????
the hot climate in Indonesia/ India might be the most suitable climate for aromatic sandal wood .
here are the pictures.

I would think that no matter how "gentle" you are with the sandpaper you will still damage and degrade the carving. Maybe it would be better to gently rub it with sandalwood oil if the scent is important to you. Or just put the oil on the blade. The scent will come through. :)