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Old 6th March 2007, 03:31 AM   #6
David
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Nova Scotia
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Jalak ngore is not the tangguh of your keris, it is the dapor. Tangguh is a Javanese system of judging the era and area of origin that your keris comes from. Dapor is the form or profile that your keris displays based on the various features (ricikan) of the blade.
Kinatah is often added to a keris at a point later in the life of the blade. But when you ask can we make our own kinatah keris...well sure, you might be able to find someone you can commission to do this type of work, but this is not something that i would do. As interested in Javanese culture as i am i still am not culturally a part of it. IMO it would be inappropriate for me to commission someone to add kinatah to one of my keris. Even if you are Javanese adding gold to your keris might still not be appropriate. Gold is added to keris as a matter of cultural significance, not becuse you as a collector want a kinatah keris.
Actually i have seen may gold kinatah keris for sale both on websites and eBay. Most of them have been old keris that dealers have added gold on to increase their sales appeal or contempory keris made for the collectors market. If you are looking for the "real thing" it will no doubt be hard to find and costly. Anyone can add gold to a keris, but the real question is why?
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