Ron, please read this as opinion only, yes, it is an educated opinion that is based upon handling thousands of keris and having been in contact with keris and keris collectors, as well as general arms collectors and makers for over 60 years, but it is still opinion and it is based on what I think I can see in the photos.
My feeling is that what we have here is a complete keris that has been assembled from unrelated parts. We call this a "marriage". It may have been done in Indonesia, or Malaysia or Singapore, it may have been done by a European antique arms dealer, it may have been done by a collector. Who did it we can only guess.
When we home in on only the blade there are two things that are out of the ordinary for any keris, not only the one we are discussing.
The first is the width of the blade bevels, what we know as gusen. To me, this width is perfectly able to explained and understood. A number of possibilities exist for this and all can be regarded as legitimate. To me, this blade bevel width is really not even worthy of a second glance or a question:- it exists, we already know the reasons why it can exist, end of story.
However, the fact that a separately made gonjo has been permanently attached to the body of the blade is so unusual as to be completely inexplicable, especially when considered from the indigenous perspective.
I very much doubt that this permanent fixing was done in SE Asia, if in fact it is a normal weld joint. The difficulty in doing this weld with native technology is simply too high, additionally, there are esoteric issues involved that I do not even want to discuss.
My feeling is that some previous owner, probably somewhere in the western world, noted the sloppy fit of the gonjo to the blade and decided that he wanted that gonjo to fit nice and tight and tidy.
If he himself had the necessary level of skill and the right type of forge, he may have done the weld himself, if he did not, it should not have been too big a problem for him to give the job to a custom knifemaker who could have done it for him.
However, there are much easier ways available that can be used to permanently fix a loose gonjo to the blade body.
There are various products that produce a "cold weld". This is in fact a super strong two part epoxy resin with (I believe) metal dust inclusion.
I have used it myself to repair the thread in the bottom bracket assembly of bicycles, to repair threads in other small items, and to fill a gonjo hole in an old, loosely fitting gonjo. I have one bike that I use regularly that I repaired the bottom bracket thread on more than 20 years ago, and it has never failed. Once in place this "cold weld" material is extremely difficult to identify, it looks like true metal. Oh yes --- I've also used it to bed a rifle action.
The brand I am familiar with is "QUIKSTEEL", but there are a number of other products that do the same thing.
As already mentioned, in Jawa they have mixed iron filings with two part epoxy for many years to repair badly damaged blades. You will never see a well done repair unless you know how it is done, what to look for, and you have the experience to identify it.
So, considered against this background, my opinion is that this gonjo might just have been permanently fixed to the body of the blade by one of these "cold weld" products.
In any case, the gonjo has been permanently fixed to the body of the blade by either a skilfully done hot weld of some type, or by use of a two part epoxy resin. However it was done, it was done a long time after the original fabrication of the blade.
Remember:- opinion.
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