Restored Tajong
 

Here is my latest restoring project - the hilt I found in UK 6 years ago, the sheath and blade in US 3 years ago and 2 weeks ago a goldsmith friend of mine finished the missing suassa details.

Michael

Nice work :)

Did he make the suasa himself ?

Best regards,
Willem

Nice restoration, Michael. It was a long journey indeed! The swasa wrapping around the bottom of the buah pinang would look more appropriate if it was about half its height. :)

Beautiful blade btw.

I like the understated elegance of the early-mid period hilt too. V nice catch!

Nice restoration! I do love suassa! :D

Amazing :eek: :)

Thanks all,

Yes, he made the suassa himself after a receipe I gave him. But he told me that he sometimes used similar alloys himself because it's more durable than gold but didn't know that it had a name.
Kai Wee, the reason it's so high is that we had to restore the buah pinang.
Here is the old version of the hilt as I found it.

Michael

I am curious now that i see the hilt in original condition. Is it likely that the hilt originally had similar suassa decoration and if not would this be more correctly considered a "upgrade" rather than a "restoration"?
Very nice indeed either way... :)

David,

You can see that the parts were the suassa is now had another colour/patination than the rest of the hilt in the old version. That's a sign of that there once had been something else on top of it. If it was originally suassa or silver however is impossible to say.

Michael

The lighter coloured parts most likely indicated the presence of old silver/swasa decorations. However, the seemingly lack of pegging holes suggest that the decorations were added during a period when adhesives were available, and swasa nail pegs were not used. Still, it was an old "upgrade", and Michael restored that. :)

How do the mounts stay on - glue?

Yes, he used some kind of special glue for gold alloys.

Michael

great tajong. i like the overall look of this keris.