What you say is correct Gustav. I've seen many wrongkos where a split has developed in the neck of the gambar, I've also seen many where the tongues of a gandar have broken off. The weakness here is not confined to Bugis/Peninsula wrongkos, nor is it confined to root wood or burl wood, but it occurs in all wrongkos.
In old-time Javanese wrongko joints, the adhesive used was very often button shellac, which is a very weak adhesive. This allowed the adhesive to break before the wood broke, and it is a very simple thing just to heat the button shellac over a candle and refit the gandar, rather than return the whole keris to a m'ranggi to get it repaired.
Basically, it is a weak joint, and if there was enough timber to do so, small dowels would improve the joint.
But there is almost never enough thickness in either the wrongko neck, or the gandar, to use dowels.
So what is done is to overcome this joint weakness in another way. The joint gets covered by a metal collar, or it gets bound with twine, or a pendok is fitted.
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