Keris Basics

tom hyle · 7th January 2005, 04:54 AM

Your chances are either 100% or zero; it'll either happen or it won't; odds and statistics are for aggregate reality; don't rely on them in real life; don't be inclined to deny reality if it seems unlikely.....my two cents. Likewise, it's not uncommon to see modern pieces that are all one layered billet with continuous grain, rather than a sandwich with a central cutting steel and a seperate pamor layer on each side, but that doesn't mean no old ones are made that way. It's very hard to cook down any sort of hard and fast easily stated rule about this stuff, and harder with kris than with most things, because of the living nature of that art, because of its sense of history, because metal does not neccessarily age in any objectively definable way (ie. the level of corrosion/patination varies basically infinitely with conditions; much moreso than with time per se), because people deliberately make new ones to be like old ones (and the better of the new ones are not viewed with disregard by many keris afficionadi), and because they have served as a field for artistic variation to such an extraordinary degree for a very long time. Also, there is a great variety in interest that varies by person or community; there are k(e)ris people who consider them ruined if the "stain" is rusted or sanded off, for instance, while others might simply re-etch/re-stain, and others might prefer to oil the rust, and love it for the patina. It can be interesting how different markets or different groups can be interested in the same thing, but for different reasons, and from different angles, and kris are one of those things.

7th January 2005, 04:54 AM	#5
tom hyle Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Houston, TX, USA Posts: 1,254	Your chances are either 100% or zero; it'll either happen or it won't; odds and statistics are for aggregate reality; don't rely on them in real life; don't be inclined to deny reality if it seems unlikely.....my two cents. Likewise, it's not uncommon to see modern pieces that are all one layered billet with continuous grain, rather than a sandwich with a central cutting steel and a seperate pamor layer on each side, but that doesn't mean no old ones are made that way. It's very hard to cook down any sort of hard and fast easily stated rule about this stuff, and harder with kris than with most things, because of the living nature of that art, because of its sense of history, because metal does not neccessarily age in any objectively definable way (ie. the level of corrosion/patination varies basically infinitely with conditions; much moreso than with time per se), because people deliberately make new ones to be like old ones (and the better of the new ones are not viewed with disregard by many keris afficionadi), and because they have served as a field for artistic variation to such an extraordinary degree for a very long time. Also, there is a great variety in interest that varies by person or community; there are k(e)ris people who consider them ruined if the "stain" is rusted or sanded off, for instance, while others might simply re-etch/re-stain, and others might prefer to oil the rust, and love it for the patina. It can be interesting how different markets or different groups can be interested in the same thing, but for different reasons, and from different angles, and kris are one of those things.