i thought the ganja was NOT connected & they were seperate pieces just held together in a press fit, the baca-bacas holding everything together.
from frederico's moro swords site:
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Again, like their Malay cousin the antique Moro kris blade consisted of two parts, that of the blade proper and the seperate gangya (guard). On Kris made before the late 19th century this seperate gangya was evident by a straight line parallel to the guard, however at some point in the late 19th century the line went to a sharp angle when nearing the outer end of the guard. After the 1930s the seperate gangya dissappeared and the blades were made in one piece. On some modern kris there is an engraved line to symbolize the gangya but on many there is no de-marcation of any kind.
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Now the blade was ready to be merged with the handle. Some have thought that the baca-baca (clamps) served to secure the blade to the handle. While partially true in the sense that they do give support, the primary purpose of the baca-baca was to insure the mating of the ganya and the blade. It is possible that this was important as to make sure that the Jen (spirit) that inhabited the blade and gave it its superior abilities would not escape. The primary means of securing the blade to the handle was through natural resin.
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...and thus the ganja could be just about any metal. as noted earlier it does match the rest of the blade and is finely fitted, the patina is quite different tho. maybe it was cleaned differently when the hilt was refitted and re-wrapped?
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