Tunnggulametung is right.
Handwork takes time.
Working with all traditional hand tools, it will take a skilled craftsman about 100 to 115 hours to carve a blade of simple dhapur that carries pamor.
That equates to about 12 to 14 eight hour days.
If the skilled craftsman uses power tools the time used decreases dramatically and can drop to only around three days, or even less.
Then there is the forge work.
If good quality modern mild steel is used and commercially produced nickel, or some other modern, clean contrasting material, no washing of the material is required, ie, repeated welding and folding to remove impurities.
Working with one striker and a forge of European design, and starting from scratch, a competent smith can produce a forging to carve a keris from in under two 8 hour days. That forging would have a random mlumah pamor and would be for a straight keris.
However, if the material is wrought iron, and meteorite, or some other material that requires extensive cleaning before use, if the forge is of traditional Javanese/Balinese design, if the pamor is anything other than a simple mlumah motif, the time used multiplies exponentially, and the possibility of failure increases exponentially.
Then there is the cost of teak charcoal, which is expensive, and the cost of tools --- a file only stays sharp for so long.
Now, let us add in the esoteric requirements for a traditional keris, which will involve a number of slametans (offerings) at various stages, and various very strict requirements for how and when the work is carried out.
You could easily be looking at six months for a 100% genuine, traditionally made keris blade.
Who is prepared to pay the cost of six months of a man's life, for a keris blade ?
Even for a blade of simple dhapur and pamor, made with power tools, you are still looking at roughly a week's work for a skilled craftsman to produce a simple keris blade.
Now consider the complete keris.
The wrongkos are always 100% handwork with hand tools.
The jejerans are always 100% handwork with hand tools --- this applies to wood, but if ivory or other hard materials are used, power tools are used in the work.
The mendak is 100% handwork with hand tools.
An embossed pendok is all handwork with punches, and an engraved pendok is engraved with gravers ( like small chisels) and a hammer.
The material for a good quality silver pendok starts as granules that are melted into a small ingot; this ingot is then hammered out to a fan shape prior to being wrapped around a mandrel and the joint silver soldered.
The edge where the joint is made has been left thicker to accept the soldering.
How much thicker? Between five and twelve blows of the hammer --- counted over the three days it takes to forge out the ingot to a fan shape. A good quality silver pendok takes about 5 or 6 days to make, before any engraving or embossing is done.
Yes, "keris like objects" do exist.
In Central Jawa we can find these in stores that sell traditional clothing. The KLO has a blade of flat iron whose only purpose is to hold the very poor quality wrongko and jejeran together.
In Bali we used to be able to find KLO's in the tourist souvenir shops, these also had blades of flat iron, often with an artificially etched pamor pattern, but the wrongkos and handles were very often good quality carvings. I have not seen these Balinese KLO's for many years.
The fact of the matter is that modern keris production in Indonesia is directed at the local market in Indonesia:- low quality modern production fills the ongoing need for local people to own a keris; high quality modern production is directed at the local demand for collectors and connoisseurs of the keris as art, but it fails to fill that demand.
It fails to fill it because the very best work of the very best craftsmen is always insufficient to meet the demand. In fact, the very best work of the very best men is really only available to a very select circle of buyers. It is seldom seen outside a tight circle of connoisseurs and dealers.
In the opinion of many Javanese art connoisseurs, the keris is the highest expression of the Javanese plastic arts.
The original post that generated this post of mine was directed at the situation in Malaysia. I have no knowledge of this situation, and my comments do not relate to Malaysia, they do relate directly to the current situation in Indonesia.
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