Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Jan · 16th February 2005, 05:22 PM

Hello, and sorry for coming in late on this one.

The picture shown by Pak Rasdan in the second posting of this thread looks VERY similar to a single metal keris handle that I purchased in Yogya about 4 years ago. I would be happy if Pak Rasdan or Raja Muda wcould remember the title of the book it is in, just to see if it says anything interesting about this particular handle.

My first attempt at taking digital pictures of my handle didn´t work out yet, I will try again later and just give you a quick comment on my version:

It is rather newly made, probably using modern tools.
It is hard to tell from Pak Rasdan´s picture above, but in this version, the old man has very furry eyebrows and a long beard down his chest. Especially face and beard are far more detailed in comparison with other keris sajen that I have seen.
The beard is partly seperated from the chest by three holes drilled through its base. In my case, these were apparently drilled through from left to right - the holes are much more precise on the left side, while the right still shows tiny bits of metal in the rim were the drill came out. I noticed this before buying it, so I never really thought it to be an old handle.
The inside of the hole for the peksi also looks professionally made using modern tools - just too precise and too smooth at the bottom of the hole.
Also, it is not as deep as other peksi holes I have seen, so maybe it would need more fixation than the traditional method - welding ???

Judging from this I would assume that both the hilt of Alam Shah`s keris and my version of it are actually modern-made single hilts that can be either normally attached or maybe even welded to a keris blade to "style it" into a keris sajen.

I will see if I get around to taking some pictures later.

16th February 2005, 05:22 PM	#20
Jan Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Hamburg, Germany Posts: 8	Hello, and sorry for coming in late on this one. The picture shown by Pak Rasdan in the second posting of this thread looks VERY similar to a single metal keris handle that I purchased in Yogya about 4 years ago. I would be happy if Pak Rasdan or Raja Muda wcould remember the title of the book it is in, just to see if it says anything interesting about this particular handle. My first attempt at taking digital pictures of my handle didn´t work out yet, I will try again later and just give you a quick comment on my version: It is rather newly made, probably using modern tools. It is hard to tell from Pak Rasdan´s picture above, but in this version, the old man has very furry eyebrows and a long beard down his chest. Especially face and beard are far more detailed in comparison with other keris sajen that I have seen. The beard is partly seperated from the chest by three holes drilled through its base. In my case, these were apparently drilled through from left to right - the holes are much more precise on the left side, while the right still shows tiny bits of metal in the rim were the drill came out. I noticed this before buying it, so I never really thought it to be an old handle. The inside of the hole for the peksi also looks professionally made using modern tools - just too precise and too smooth at the bottom of the hole. Also, it is not as deep as other peksi holes I have seen, so maybe it would need more fixation than the traditional method - welding ??? Judging from this I would assume that both the hilt of Alam Shah`s keris and my version of it are actually modern-made single hilts that can be either normally attached or maybe even welded to a keris blade to "style it" into a keris sajen. I will see if I get around to taking some pictures later.