Interesting keris sold on E-bay

[Alam Shah]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

I don't think its a repair.

I have seen a lot of Sumatran scabbards made in this way, mostly rencong scabbards.

I agree on the rencong scabbards, as I do have examples of it. But as far as keris sheaths are concerned, there are those which uses a centre split shaft (batang). The sheath normally uses a two-part ensemble, as what Kai Wee mentioned.. the upper cross-piece (sampir) and the shaft (batang), not from a one-piece 'gandar iras', like this example.. As for this strange split, your guess is as good as mine..

I've seen these mostly on Riau examples, where the joints are exactly at the centre, from the start of the batang, all the way to the end-piece.