Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - A North Coast Javanese Keris with a Raksasa comment

Rafngard · 11th April 2018, 05:10 AM

Hello All,

I just picked up this keris from epray for a surprisingly low price. I think it's from the North coast. My first instinct is that it has some real age, but I'm often wrong on such things. The Gayaman style sampir has a kendit stripe (though I think it might be dyed on).

The ukiran is a lot of what attracted me to the keris. To my eye, it looks stylistically closer to older ones, rather than modern Cirebon raksasa hilts (it lacks the "hunch-back" you often see on this), but there's a good possibility I'm wrong on this. The filigreed selut is almost certainly a latter addition, though it is pretty.

At some point, maybe 20+ years in the past, some bozo decided to glue the peksi into the ukiran, the mendak to the selut, and the gandar into the pendok. I was able to remove much of this, though some is still present on the mendak (visible in one of the photos).Through slow, deliberate work, I was able to get the peksi out of the ukiran, but it was stressful, I've snapped a peksi before).

The blade looks old (but perhaps it is artificially aged). Evidence of Pamor is visible, and the blade seems to be starting to delaminate near the tip. I have done a light cleaning since receiving it (and drenching the blade in wd-40)

What do people think? Is my thinking correct, or totally off base. Any other comments or thoughts are as always welcome.

Thanks,
Leif

11th April 2018, 05:10 AM	#1
Rafngard Member Join Date: Jun 2015 Location: Minneapolis,MN Posts: 324	A North Coast Javanese Keris with a Raksasa hilt for comment Hello All, I just picked up this keris from epray for a surprisingly low price. I think it's from the North coast. My first instinct is that it has some real age, but I'm often wrong on such things. The Gayaman style sampir has a kendit stripe (though I think it might be dyed on). The ukiran is a lot of what attracted me to the keris. To my eye, it looks stylistically closer to older ones, rather than modern Cirebon raksasa hilts (it lacks the "hunch-back" you often see on this), but there's a good possibility I'm wrong on this. The filigreed selut is almost certainly a latter addition, though it is pretty. At some point, maybe 20+ years in the past, some bozo decided to glue the peksi into the ukiran, the mendak to the selut, and the gandar into the pendok. I was able to remove much of this, though some is still present on the mendak (visible in one of the photos).Through slow, deliberate work, I was able to get the peksi out of the ukiran, but it was stressful, I've snapped a peksi before). The blade looks old (but perhaps it is artificially aged). Evidence of Pamor is visible, and the blade seems to be starting to delaminate near the tip. I have done a light cleaning since receiving it (and drenching the blade in wd-40) What do people think? Is my thinking correct, or totally off base. Any other comments or thoughts are as always welcome. Thanks, Leif Attached Images Last edited by Rafngard; 11th April 2018 at 11:59 AM.