Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

A. G. Maisey · 22nd November 2009, 11:19 PM

Gustav, I think that blade in Djelengga has probably also had its edges cleaned up. I don't know of any standard dhapur in either Javanese or Balinese keris that have this shoulder.

I also do not think that we are looking at remnant pudak setegal, because pudak setegal are usually found on blades with kembang kacang --- but if we are diluar Pakem, anything is possible.

I believe that the m'ranggi who cleaned up this blade left the shoulders in the blade to avoid the very time consuming work that would have been involved if he had gone any further into the sorsoran. Maybe he was working on a budget, maybe the value of the blade was not sufficient to justify the work involved in reshaping the sorsoran, maybe he didn't have a sufficient level of skill to go any further. I don't know the base reason why he stopped where he did, but I do know that to go any further would involve a lot of skill and a lot of time.

22nd November 2009, 11:19 PM	#2
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,992	Gustav, I think that blade in Djelengga has probably also had its edges cleaned up. I don't know of any standard dhapur in either Javanese or Balinese keris that have this shoulder. I also do not think that we are looking at remnant pudak setegal, because pudak setegal are usually found on blades with kembang kacang --- but if we are diluar Pakem, anything is possible. I believe that the m'ranggi who cleaned up this blade left the shoulders in the blade to avoid the very time consuming work that would have been involved if he had gone any further into the sorsoran. Maybe he was working on a budget, maybe the value of the blade was not sufficient to justify the work involved in reshaping the sorsoran, maybe he didn't have a sufficient level of skill to go any further. I don't know the base reason why he stopped where he did, but I do know that to go any further would involve a lot of skill and a lot of time.