Kris: Sulu or Sumatra?
Hi All,
When I pulled my Christmas present from the sheath, I said to my wife that it is a very nice Sulu kris. Then I flipped the sheath over and saw “SUMATRA KRISS” printed on the 8 sided (originally) label. You would think that whoever collected the sword would know where they got it from but, given that the label looks like something that may have been put on by a museum, the collector may not have been the one who did the cataloging. Still, one would think (or at least hope) that the person who did the cataloging had a reason for the designation. So, Is there anything about this sword that marks it as likely to be from Sumatra or is it just a probable museum catalogue error?
Specs: Blade about 22” (55.8cm) long with lenticular cross section. Steel baca baca. Non ferrous metal ferrule. Wooden cockatua pommel. Hilt wrap of cord (a bit of a train wreck) with two leather bands (one below the pommel and one after the ferrule).
When I got the piece, the blade, baca baca, ferrule, and pommel were all covered with a thick layer of shellac or lacquer which strengthens the museum suspicion but did nothing to prevent a good amount of rust from forming on the blade (but surprisingly, not on the baca baca). A dip in one of my EvapoRust tanks took care of the blade rust but didn’t completely remove the coating. Even after rubbing the blade with a lacquer soaked 3M pad, some of the coating remains. The pommel is still fully coated as found.
Even though the blade style looks rather old, the blade itself is rather thin and fairly flexible so I suspected that it may be a newer blade with with a ganja iras and a fake ganja line. Inspection of the line with a hand lens was inconclusive but the hilt is loose (no surprise there) so I pulled it off. I still can’t tell for sure but have provided two shots of the tang.
Sincerely,
RobT
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