I usually do not engage in discussion of this type of keris, I won't go into the specific reasons for this, sufficient for me to say that these keris are not directly relevant my area of study.
However, before my focus became as narrow as it presently is, I read all the usual books, and truth be told, I still read material related to these keris, its just that it doesn't interest me much. But odd bits and pieces stick in my mind.
As I write, I'm looking at Kai's post # 20, where he names the hilt style in David's post
#14 as "pekaka".
Kai, may I most respectfully enquire as to your source for this naming?
Frankly, I do not know a name for this style that I can claim to be accurate, what I do know is this:-
1) Gardner, published in 1936 called this style "Jawa Demam, Northern type".
The style that we now know as "Tajong" he named as "Pekakak".
He explains that because of the resemblance of this Pekakak hilt form to a kingfisher, people called it a Kingfisher hilt:- "pekakak" means "kingfisher".
Bear in mind, Gardner was a Britain working in Old Malaya he was reporting what the people he had contact with called things, not what western world collectors called things, so it is reasonable to assume that in pre-WWII Malaya, Malay people called the Tajong hilt a Pekakak hilt. He mentions that this Pekakak form is a Pattani style of hilt.
I rather feel that if we investigate further, we will find that the name of the keris style is Tajong, the name of the hilt is Pekaka, or Pekakak. In Malay language "Pekaka" has the same meaning as "Pekakak", spoken they both sound almost the same, especially to a non-native speaker, as the final "k" in "Pekakak" is a glottal stop.
I don't think Gardner mentions the Coteng hilt, but in my experience collectors of the unenlightened past also called this a Pekakak hilt, or kingfisher hilt, only acknowledging that it was different style of the same form.
2) Stone, published 1934 calls keris fitted with both Coteng hilts and Tajong hilts, "Kingfisher Keris", he theorises that this hilt is a representation of Garuda.
3) Mr. Jensen in his "Krisdisc" (2007) names the hilt form shown by David in post # 14 as "Northern type of Jawa Demam, called perkaka Pattani". The word "perkaka" does not exist in Malay, so I think we can safely assume that Mr. Jensen means "pekaka", ie "---pekaka Pattani---".
It should be noted that although Mr. Jensen names the pistol grip form of Bugis hilt as the "panghulu type", "panghulu", or "pangulu" actually means "hilt", "panghulu" is not the name of a form or type or style.
The name of this pistol grip form of Bugis hilt is "Rekko". (Ahmad Ubbe, 2011)
4) Ahmad Ubbe (Senjata Pusaka Bugis, 2011) names the hilt form shown by David in post #14 as "Sikori", and the pistol grip Bugis form as "Rekko".
Things really do start to get complicated when we try to use names in difficult foreign languages.
So, Kai, may respectfully request your source for the name you have used:- " pekaka" ?
I ask this because you appear to have access to a source that I do not know.
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