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Originally Posted by Larks
....the hilt (hulu?) is ivory, not bone as I’d first thought, and that the handle was collectible and quite valuable in Jakarta on its own, with many of the blades of Keris of the age having long rusted away and Indonesian collectors placing a higher importance on historic handles as collectables than westerners might.
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Welcome to the forum Greg. Well, i'd say your Javanese friend is mostly correct. This is indeed an ivory hilt, and given the present condition of your blade i would imagine that if one were to value parts of your keris that indeed the hilt has the most monetary resale value of any other part of this piece. But i would disagree that "Indonesian collectors place a higher importance on historic handles" unless, of course, they happen to specifically be just hilt collectors (there are people who only collect hilts). But anyone who collects keris in Indonesia knows the the sum of any good ensemble is always greater than its parts, but that the most important part of a keris, certainly from a historic perspective, is always going to be the blade. Keris dress comes and goes, but the blade is the heart and soul of the ensemble. While one does indeed encounter mistreated blades, traditionally the blades are ritually cleaned and maintained. That doesn't mean that some don't fall by the wayside as this keris has, but for the most part keris blades are not rusting away in their scabbard.
Unfortunately the dress (hilt and sheath) has also seen better days and i concur with Alan that this keris deserves some restoration. The buntet is missing from the tip of the sheath stem and the hilt and hilt cup could use some cleaning. The buntet would probably ivory it complement the hilt so replacing that creates some problem. But other materials such as bone or horn could serve. I can't tell through that tarnish, but that hilt cup might be silver and if so it should shine. The wood could be at least cleaned and oiled, but possibly refinished.
The blade should be soaked in vinegar or citrus and brushed at intervals to remove rust and corrosion. Then the blade should be oiled with fragrant oils.
As Alan suggests, you might have a nice keris hiding in there.
BTW, this is a Bugis style keris. I'm sure someone will come along to nail down this particular hilt form, but this could be a Sumatran keris. What are the dimensions?