Thank you for the advice, and yes I remember reading about the short tangs on keris.
While I DO experiment with some of my pieces, the keris are strictly for display and enjoyment.
Some of the klewangs HAVE been used to clear exuberantly growing tropical Florida foliage on occasion, which has only served to make me admire their function when compared to modern machetes, for example.
One last question, if I may......the ferule on this executioner's keris appears overlarge for the wooden hilt and I notice the same characteristic on Ian's Lombok piece, almost as if sitting on a plate as opposed to the more normal tight fit on a "regular" keris, while both appear to be original to the entire weapon as evidenced from the very nice fit into the throat of the sheath.
Is this typical to any long bladed keris and/or sword from both locations?
As I said, I have NO real knowldege of either area and yet these similarities seem to leap out to my eye, particularly as there is a vast disparity between quality/status and origin of both in regards to Indonesian weapons in general.
Mike
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