How old is this dagger? Why is the blade so black?
 

Hello dagger for comment please

It's a keris from Indonesia. It's black because they deliberately stain them that way with an arsenic bath. They use a pattern welding of different steel alloys, and some with nickel, sometimes in the best ones, meteoric high nickel iron alloys. The nickel doesn't stain, so it shows the pattern made by the smith, there are various named known patterns with specific traditional meanings.


You might want to read thru the keris forum threads for more detail. This probably should be moved to that forum. Their experts can give you more info on it's age, exactly where it was likely made, how they stain the blades, what the patterns mean, etc.

Thread moved to the Keris forum.

It is a very poorly made recent keris, scabbard is Madura style, blade looks somewhat Balinese and the very poor carved handle is a fantasy produkt.
Sorry for the bad news. :shrug:

Regards,
Detlef

Detlef, i would say that the blade was made in Madura as well. It does seem that it is an attempt at a Balinese style blade, but not done with much skill.
The handle is poorly carved, but i am not convinced this is a "fantasy product". I have seen this same figure before. This one is just a very poor depiction.
This was probably made within the last 20 years or so.

Hello David,
Yes I agree, I write "looks Balinese". ;)


Possible! But this one is an insult to my eyes! I hope that Aspalathos not paid too much for it.

Regards,
Detlef

Yes, not a real good example of a keris, but it is a keris and several people placed a part of their lives into making it.

It is recent, and it is a fact of life that not everybody either needs or can afford a nice keris.

Looking at it does not offend my eyes, I simply recognise the limits of human existence.