Johan, the way in which you have stated your beliefs is in my experience quite accurate when we are talking about weapon collecting in general, and the attitudes of just about every collector of anything.
Collectors classify, describe, and create records. They are usually very focused on the physical presence of the object, and when they do dig a little deeper and begin to look at the collected object in the context of the society that generated it, that further investigation always relates back to the collected object. At least, this is what I have observed during the time I have held an interest in edged weapons, currently something in excess of 60 years.
I myself did go through this stage, but by about age 20 my interest had narrowed to a focus on only the keris, with a fringe interest in other S. E. Asian weapons. By the time I was in my early forties I was pretty much focused on only the keris in Jawa and Bali, and associated honoured weaponry. Over the last thirty odd years my interest has become more and more focused on societal and cultural elements that set the keris apart from all other weapons. I can no longer be regarded as a "collector" of edged weapons. My attitudes and values have changed, in fact, I probably left actual "collecting" behind a long time ago.
I realise that my standards are not the standards, nor the desires or motivations of most people with an interest in edged weaponry, or of the keris. In this respect, I am the odd man out, not everybody else. But I would like to see more people take the time and make the effort to truly understand what they are dealing with when they begin to take an interest in the keris.
You have taken the first steps in what may or may not become an abiding interest in the keris. Perhaps this wrongko project will be the extent of your interest, you will acquire a few keris, you will do your best to classify and label them, and they will enter your collection alongside an assortment of weapons.
There is nothing wrong with any of this. It is in fact what just about all collectors of weaponry do, and our function in this Forum is to assist people just like you, who have this interest.
But this realisation does not mean that I would not like to see the occasional person take the road less traveled and start to think about what might be behind the physical object that he can hold in his hands.
This is the reason I often throw in off the cuff remarks that might hopefully cause somebody, once in a while, to realise that what he thinks is so, and what many people will tell him is so, is in fact about as wrong as it can be.
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