[RobT]

Battara,

Thanks for the clarification. I rather suspected that the tight ganja was a structural improvement over the earlier style. For the dagger sized Indonesian keris which was a point weapon, the entirely separate (and often rather loosely attached) ganja didn't matter too much because the blade would be subjected to fairly low torque but for the cut and thrust sword sized Philippine kris, torque would be an important issue. I have a feeling that the one piece baca baca is also an improvement over the older two piece type. By the way, one of the tight ganja kris I have shows lamination running perpendicular to the blade.

Sincerely,
RobT