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Old 9th August 2007, 11:14 PM   #8
A. G. Maisey
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Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 6,662
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What I will write is not advice.

It is the telling of what some museums do, truly spiritual people whom I know in Jawa, and whom are also orientated towards keris do, and what I do.

If one wishes to preserve the blade of the keris it should be stored bare, on a glass shelf, lightly coated with a good gun oil, and in controlled atmosphere to limit humidity and extremes of heat and cold.
The wrongko, jejeran, mendak, and pendok should all be separated and stored on glass under atmospheric conditions suited to the materials involved.
This approach is ideal for preservation.

If one holds the belief that one's keris is a mystical object, then it must be treated with a degree of respect, and whatever essence it may hold should be conserved. The keris should be stored in a singep ( a purpose made cloth bag), the singep placed horizontally in a purpose built chest, and this chest kept in a cupboard in the most private male section of the house, possibly a dedicated cabinet in the study or office would be ideal.
On specific occasion, or as the need may arise, it would be acceptable to place this keris in a blawong , above head hieght, on the wall of the house in a location where the need may most likely be met.
This is the approach I have observed that is used by my inlaws and friends who live in Jawa and who are "keris conscious", but who are not keris collectors.

I keep my entire collection of keris in a security room in my house. It is not a large room, and it contains several chests of drawers, several sets of shelves, and a very large camphorwood chest. All my keris are kept in singeps, and those singeps are kept in drawers and boxes. All keris are stored horizontally. The blades of my keris are oiled with a keris oil that is made of 50% medicinal parrafin, 45% sandalwood oil, and 5% kenanga oil. Prior to oiling all blades have been drenched with WD40. All blades are wrapped in plastic film prior to being placed in the wrongko.
In this security room I have one keris in a single ploncon, and two keris in blawongs; these are my personal keris.
I do not have any keris displayed anywhere in my house.
I do have a number of tombak in the house, 7 on display shafts in a ploncon, 4 or 5 on full length shafts placed in various corners. These tombak are not consciously displayed, but kept as they are simply because it is convenient for me.
Apart from what I have outlined here, there are always a number of keris in various stages of maintenance that are spread throughout the house, some at one end of the diningroom table, some on the dresser, some in the bedroom, some in the workshop.Anywhere I turn I can see keris, but these are not on display, they are being worked on.

In times past I have kept keris on open display, but I found that the amount of work required to maintain keris that were left open to dust, flies, humidity and so on, was simply too great. I once had something like 80 or 100 keris displayed in a dedicated alcove of my house, and to maintain these keris in good condition used almost all my spare time. Open display , in my opinion, is just not practical.

Ultimately, the way in which one stores one's keris is a personal decision. The objective should be to store in a way that gives one the highest degree of comfort.
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