David, Alan,
I will try to respond further on this subject.
David, accept my apoligies, english is not my native language. I do understand english rather well, but sometimes winks and phrases I simply cann't understand as the joke they are made for. Just like we can make winks with our Dutch language, which aren't understood by non native speakers.
The keris you show from the archives are made with much more quality than the soldier keris. I do own similar maduran keris which i wouldn't qualify as soldier bring back keris, but more as maduran keris. But then to return to your question, were they made for madurans? I really cann't give you the answer. But looking at these keris I have an example with a carved wrongko and hilt of which i can imagine a maduran would have been proud to wear it.
I think however and it is a carefull guess these appearance of the maduran keris came up in the 40ties or 50ties of the previous century.
Then we come to the next point.
Alan, although i'm not an expert on woodspecies i understand clearly what you mean and how the quality or hardness of the wood gives the results of carving.
The wood of the maduran keris and which David showed us from the archives is of a kind usually used for keris sheats.
The wood of the soldier keris shown in the thread, both Chregu's and Ricks, i always compare with the wood of a firtree. Wood of the firtree is here in Holland low quality wood.
I hope this answer made clear what i ment.
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