[A. G. Maisey]

Kai, have you ever considered taking six or twelve months off from work and finding a mentor in Central Jawa?

I feel you might benefit greatly from this.

Or even in Australia.

I have been involved in several different types of custom made, bespoke items, both as producer & as client, and the people I have known who worked in these fields would simply refuse to accept a commission from any prospective client who placed such stipulations upon them.

It might have been OK in the past to be the master of the craftsman, I doubt that this is so these days. Even in a craft where it might reasonably be expected. Like tailoring.

I ordered a tailor made suit when I was 21. I went to a tailor who was regognised for quality work, there were interminable fittings, and it was finally delivered. It really looked great, and improved the way I looked by about 500%

It was probably 20 years before I ordered another tailor made suit, and the process for that was very much abbreviated.

The last tailor-made suit I ordered was in about 1990. A tailor came to Sydney from Hong Kong, took my measurements and took those measurements home to HK. I got one fitting, about a month later, adjustments were made, the suit was delivered in about another two weeks.

It was OK, not great, but nothing that could really be complained about.

Why did I order from HK?

Well I could only find one tailor in Sydney whose work I liked, and he had a six month waiting list, and in any case, I would much have preferred a new motor vehicle to a new suit. He was just a bit too expensive for me.

These days it seems to me that everybody who carries out work for somebody else does so on their own terms. The days when we could even tell a plumber what we wanted done and how are long gone. Try to supervise or place restrictions on anybody, they tell you to stick your money in a place where the sun don't shine.

But specifically related to keris.

All the Javanese craftsmen I know regard any criticism at all of their work as being close to personal insult. They can react in a number of ways, but the end result is usually that if they do anything at all, it will not improve the item, but rather detract from it. What we do here is to either accept or reject the work. If we reject and have already paid a deposit, it is very unlikely we will ever see that deposit again, so we accept the item no matter what. If it is fixable we give it to somebody else to fix, and this could take a number of people and a number of tries. If it is not fixable, we just on-sell it.

We do not ever try to tell the craftsman where his work is defective and how we want it fixed.

But if Anthony is working through an agent, his path might be marginally easier, if his agent is cooperative and wants return orders.