minangkabau keris for comment
 

Dear all,
I here have a sumatran keris, tmho minangkabau. The handle and the small endpiece of the sarong are made from ivory. The sarong has some damage (copperwork). The lowerpart is made from woven copper and (horsetail) hair. The ring is to keep the surviving weavings in place. It has an nice grained wooden wranka. The blade fits the sarong good. It is an very old piece. I am thinking about restoring the weavings.... The wranka is very shiny on the pictures but that is mostly due to the flash.

Greetings Ron

hello Ron pakis very nice keris I would change noting but leave the keris how he is now

regards semar

Hi ronpakis,
It is indeed looks like a nice Minang piece to me. Pendok might be repaired/replaced.
I don't know if is it normal to have (horsetail) hair on the batang, but might be once intended to fill the gap between batang and pendok to fit (?)
A light "collection maintenance" cleaning is needed if you ask me and a replaced pendok if you can find one (this might be very difficult, but who knows).

hi Ronpakis,

Finding a sumatra pendok... almost imposible to do without "stealing" it from an other keris. So i would say leave it a it is. The only thing you need to think about is if you want the blade to get cleaned and washed (warangan)?

Nice keris, looks good engouh to let it be as it is.

Regards, Michel

Nice keris! As original as it gets! :) Based on some of my friends' 'expeditions' to the Minang heartland (Bukit Tinggi) in Sumatra, it seems that horsehair weavings on batangs are quite common. Sometimes, they put small gold 'staplets' (Dunno what to call them) on the weaving for the more expensive kerises, and it can look quite nice! I guess it could also be silver or copper in other cases.

Just wondering - the blade doesn't look typical Minang though.

thanks for the comments, what about restoration?
 

Thanks all for the comments,

Any advice about repairing the weavings, to do or not??
About the blade, looks sumatran to me.... but...

greetings Ron

Hello Ron,

Very nice keris.
Can you make a close up of the weaving ?

Best regards,
Willem