Quote:
Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey
Personally, I would not consider for one instant sending this keris to either Jawa or Madura for a wrongko.
Never in a million years.
But I am very risk averse & I have better than 50 years experience with Bali, Jawa, Madura & Indonesia in general, as well as the people who do this work.
It might be viable to seek out somebody who works with keris online --- everybody I know is old school & not at all tuned into modern communication.
You could try ordering a new or used wrongko and fit the blade yourself. I'd order new, the blade fitting is not difficult, but it is painstaking & you do need patience.
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I agree with Alan and would really think twice (or three or four times
) before i would send a keris back to Indonesia for a refitting. But as suggested, you may be able to find an old wrongko and refit it to your blade if you have the skills. You may even get lucky and find an old sheath that already has a reasonable fit. But i don't see many old, unmated wrongko on eBay anymore.
The possibility does also exist to get you hands on a new wrongko that has not yet had the opening cut for a blade. This is a much more ambitious project that refitting a blade to a used wrongko, and probably requires more skills, but it can be done. I speak from experience as i did do this once for a keris in my own collection. Unfortunately i am not very skilled in this craft, but did manage to get a somewhat passage job done. Far from perfect, but i can live with the imperfection. As you can see one of the photos, the blade does sit a bit "proud" in the sheath and my fitting in not quite like a glove, but it works. When i received this sheath it was unstained/finished and the was just a small starter hole in the Gambar and the Gandar was separated form it. The pendok is brass and i had a nice silver plating job done on it. Though not at all perfect it was a fun and educational process for me.
As for the hilt, i would search for a new one. You can find hilts on ePray that could serve this keris well that would not be too expensive. Probably not antique ones with this level of carving, but reasonable examples that will serve their purpose. Well carved antique ones would, of course, not be inexpensive. You can also find various online sellers, whose names i will not mention here due to forum rules, who regularly stock hilts of various styles and eras for sale. While this hilt probably could be repaired i believe it would probably cost you more to do that than to find a replacement. As has been pointed out, this is a Madura keris so you will probably want to be looking for appropriate hilt forms.