Very well put Marto. Change is the nature of ALL living things. It applies to entire cultures as well as people. The days of the empu are gone and the culture of keris is changing. Personally, i see no problem with a smith using power tools to help him create a keris at this point. It is merely the tool. What's important is how it is used. In fact, i think the smith might be a bit foolish not to explore the best possible tool for any particular job and an electric powered one might just be the ticket. Keris making is EVOLVING, for better or for worse. But i will say that some of the keris being made today are probably of the highest quality on a pure technical scale than have ever been made before.BTW, there are some very high quality keris being made these days that are never seen outside Jawa. They are being made for select group of Javanese buyers. And as was just pointed out to me just recently, many of the finest keris in museums in Europe were actually new when they were collected.
