Jean, in this context "know" is a dangerous word.
Based upon what I have been told there are a number of things I believe to be so, and a lesser number of things I know to be so.
The majority of keris in the Neka Musium are current era production, I know this because most of them have the names of the makers on the ID tags.
Most of these makers are from East Jawa, Central Jawa and Madura, a few are from Bali. In the "Keris Bali" book the Balinese people who are currently working are listed.
On display in the Neka Musium there are only a very, very small number of old blades, and from an artistic perspective these blades are really only pretty average.
Complex pamor miring is the product of refined pattern welding techniques and is extremely difficult to make well. In my opinion the current era smiths in Madura are amongst the very best pattern welders who have ever lived. They supply the bakalan to the carver, and except in rare cases, the pandai keris does not make the bakalan, he buys it, and then carves it.
Shock!!! Horror!!!
Nope. The idea of the lone empu meditating on top of a mountain and striking one blow with his hammer as the sun rose, and then carving the keris with his finger nails, has been dead for a thousand years. For at least the last several hundred years the empu has been the master and in only a very few cases has he managed the fire, held the hammer and then carved the bakalan. He has directed tradesmen smiths to do the hard work, and has used these tradesmen as tools.
When a Javanese says:- " I made this" , what he means is that he is responsible for its making, not necessarily that he struck the blow that made it reality.
I think most of us have heard of Empu Kinom? Mataram, 17th century.
Well, some years ago a gentleman in Solo did some calculations on how long Kinom would have had to live to make all the keris that were attributed to him. The resultant length of this famous empu's life was several thousand years. Kinom was a master, he had tradesmen working under him, essentially, he was "quality control".
Amongst the pandai-pandai keris who were a part of the "Anak-anak ASKI" (the keris makers in Surakarta who drove the movement in the early1980's) I know of only one who continued to do the entire making of a blade from fire to finish, through to the time of his retirement. The others were, and are, masters who direct. They knew how to both weld and carve, but if they continued to work, as soon as they could afford it, they employed others to do the hard work, they became quality control. When these masters did make a keris themselves, the price escalated exponentially, as did the quality.
I have a text book that was produced by a Surakarta Kraton empu around the end of the 19th century. In this book explicit instructions are given for what work each tradesman is permitted to do and to see. This was the way in which transference of knowledge was limited. In the making of a keris blade it is usual that a lot of workers are involved, but only the name of the empu or pandai keris is known and remembered.
Thus it is that the pattern welded bakalans produced in Madura are sold to makers who live in both Madura and other places.
In the case of current era Balinese keris, blades are forged and carved in Bali, this is certain. But it is also possible that bakalans are forged in Madura and then carved in Bali, or even made in Madura and then the details corrected in Bali.
Once the blade has been made there is really no way that anybody can actually "know" unless he has been party to the entire process, as to what a person believes, well, that's up to him.
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