OK Kai, you got me.
Alan would do absolutely nothing with this keris, except to tidy it up.
I'd start with the blade, demount from the hilt, scrub with toothbrush and mineral turpentine, then soak with WD40, give it a few days of repeated WD40 sprays, work over it and try to remove as much dirt and surface rust as I could. I would not go the full strip and re-stain route unless I was doing this in Jawa.
Clean up the wood, hilt and scabbard with toothbrush and baby oil. Demount the pendok, soak in vinegar --- about a day would be enough I think, rinse thoroughly, polish with 0000 steel wool.
The mendak would get a vinegar soak for maybe a day, then rinse thoroughly and lightly polish with 0000 steel wool.
If I was in Solo I might, only might, consider getting a silver selut made. If I was doing this work anywhere else I would not even consider a silver selut because I do not know any silver workers outside of Solo who could do the job at a price that would not over capitalise this keris.
Silver workers whom I do know in both Australia and Bali seem to think that their work is major art, and they charge accordingly --- and one of the Aussies I know is a good friend. Think about it:- how long for a silver smith to make this little selut? He's never even seen one before, he's got no model, just a picture. Let's say he is extremely skilled and incredibly perceptive, a real gem amongst silver smiths, lets say it takes him an hour.
In Australia one hour of an experienced silver smith's time is worth around $AUD30. But that wage rate is what he would be paid by a regular employer, a self employed artisan would undoubtedly charge more for a one-off nuisance job.
The value of the silver itself is not much, silver is around 50 cents a gram, in a selut like this I'd guess maybe 15 grams, so say $7 or $8.
Total cost $37.
Then you've got the other overheads like fuel to get to and from the silver smith, the time and money spent in finding somebody who can do the job and is willing to do the job, telephone calls, your own lost time.
Real total cost is now how much? In my own case if I were to undertake to put a silver selut on this hilt , here in Australia, the total real cost of the job would be over $100.
As I said, I might consider putting a selut on it if I were in Solo, but before I did, I'd need to estimate how much I could sell it for with a selut, and without a selut. It would sell easier with a selut, but I doubt that it would sell at all if I needed to load the "without" price with just the bare real cost of putting a selut on it , even if it was done in Solo.
My recommendation is to clean this keris up, tidy it up, and forget the selut.
OK, true, this is a rather hard-line approach, but the simple fact is this:- sooner or later most collectors grow past their present state of appreciation and reach a higher level. When that happens they look at the lower end of their collection and consider sale, usually in order to finance higher value pieces. If we sell something we normally want to get back at least what we paid for it. Unless the purchase price of this keris was remarkably low, putting a silver selut on it would make getting our investment in it back in cash an almost possible task.
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