As I wrote once before in a similar thread, there is a Sumatran, possibly Minang Keris in the Moser-Charlottenfels collection, which has a huge showy molar hilt. It was collected before 1886. By huge I mean, it has a size, which don't allow to use it practically, like some balinese Bebondolan, often with Kendhit. The provenance of this Keris is absolutely sure.
There is another, very similar Keris in Amsterdam (or Leiden).
Sorry David, yet I am not sure if I understand the general sense of your lengty and somehow light-minded sentence:
"Somebody will now probably post some old keris hilt that they have provenance on for late 19th century or something, but when you say "rare use" i would have to agree that old examples of this material in keris dress is indeed rare and i would say that yes, that would explain why there is no lore to be found that is attached to it because most probably none exists."
I am confident, you are able to understand that old museum collections are OFTEN an invaluable help to pin down an object in a time-period.
Now to the material. I am absolutely not wondering myself about the fact, people in Central Java now or decades ago werent informed, what was going on somewhere in Sumatran highlands around 1880 regarding local beliefs on this strange and impractical, and rare material. I would say, they most probably didn't have the slightest interest in a thing, which were light years off from the refined esthetics of javanese courts.
It is known, that different wood species used for Keris hilts have different amount and kind of spiritual power in Malay beliefs. The same can be said about different sorts of iron.
It is obvious that a hilt made from a quite special material in a size, which don't allow to use it practically, has a power, which is beyound the practical use. Back in those days people wouldn't pick up a piece of rubbish, drill a hole in it and fit it on a Pesi. And if they would do it, they surely would find a "lore" about it.
Which sources do we have regarding Sumatran Minang beliefs from 1880-ties about minerals? Or - about Keris?
If there are no awailable, it is still quite reckless to say, there were no such beliefs, even more when lacking the available information about the physical objects from this time.
As students of Keris we most of the time are living with awareness of fact, that the most part of beliefs/information about Keris from its beginnings on are gone forever. What we know, is much less then the visible part of an iceberg.
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