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Originally Posted by Mickey the Finn
A few years ago I was considering shipping some roasted curly maple lumber to Java for use as handles and warangka for golok Nabi Mulud.
Some of the properties of this wood include: brings harmony and stability to the home, extends society life, makes your enemies be at peace with you, nullifies all your opponent's pelets, and neutralizes all ilmu sihir. The presence in the home of even a small object carved from this wood (a deder, for example) gives off a pleasant and sweet fragrance which is an invincible defence and an infallible repellent to toyol, siluman, and all hantu, and prevents their entering the house. Some have said that the fragrance of this wood is intolerable and repulsive to penyihir, but opinions vary (and I myself have doubts about this particular point).
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This is very interesting Mickey. However, i am having a hard time understanding how Curly Maple, a rather beautiful wood that is native to the central and Northeastern regions of the USA and used mostly for musical instruments, would have any particular spiritual/magickal properties attributed to it within the context of Indonesian keris culture. If it is indeed being used at all in that area of the world these days it is certainly a rather recent introduction. Also, it is not known as a particularly fragrant wood, unless, of course, you burn it, so your comments on that i find confusing.
Kayu sawo does indeed originate in Mexico, Central American and the Caribbean. However, it was introduced to SE Asian during Spanish colonialism and so has had some time to ingrain itself culturally within Indonesian society. The same can hardly be said about Curly Maple, which i seriously doubt would even grow very well in that environment. I would be most curious to know what the source of your information on this wood and supposed properties within Indonesian culture are. Because if you are going to make such statements about how it is used there to protect against witches, ghosts and black magic, brings peace and harmony and nullifies your enemies own protective charms then you certainly should be able to back up those statements for actual references. Please enlighten us.
Moose antler has indeed become a popular carving material in Bali in recent years. While i have seen some nice carvings done with the material i frankly find the over all effect rather flat and unsatisfactory. It is a poor substitute for ivory i'm afraid. While i do not know anything about import regulations into Indonesian i am afraid none of that is particularly germane to the subject of this forum, which is, as you know, keris. If you would like to discuss keris hilts made of moose antler on these pages and would like to upload a few examples that would be a most reasonable subject for this forum. But if you are trying to start a conversation on or figure out how to start up a business selling raw material to Indonesia for that purpose that is not appropriate discussion material for this forum, IMVHO.
