Unknown pamor

[Jean]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

I found rambut daradah in "Pamor Eksotik", and on your advice I've looked at EK and its there too, but rambut daradah is not like the pamor in your keris.

Essentially it is pamor mrambut but with indented edges. In other words a thin, whispy pamor adeg (which is what pamor mrambut is like), but with irregularly indented edges.

Your pamor appears to be a heavily manipulated twist pattern.

However, if we ignore the segmentation and the compacted joints that appear to indicate a twist, then, yes, there is a similarity to an adeg motif.

It really is essential to have the blade in your hand when you are faced with this sort of situation.

Yes Jean, you're right:- some collectors place a very great importance upon classification, and this is one of the reasons why those people will forever remain as collectors, rather than as students of the keris. My personal approach to understanding a keris is with appraisal of craftsmanship and feeling.Names are a secondary consideration.

What I have been taught about the naming of a pamor is this:-

first understand what the maker did to produce the motif

then understand what the pamor was that he was trying to produce

if there is sufficient resemblance to the motif he was trying to achieve , then you give the motif that name

if there is insufficient resemblance to the desired motif it is a failed motif

if it is not possible to understand the making process, and the pamor does not resemble a known motif , then it is an unknown motif :- go ask the maker --- no, not really, I'm being facetious

Re the tirto tejo story. At the time I gave that name I was not aware that there was a pamor already that was named tirto tejo, but since that time I have come across several different pamor patterns, as well as the one I named, that are all referred to as tirto tejo.

Rather than try to place names on everything, it is, in my opinion, far more important to be able to recognise excellence of execution.

Dear Alan,
Thank you for your detailed reply. First regarding the pamor Rambut Daradah, I was already told that it did not look very similar to mine, especially if it is twisted as you noticed.
Your comment about the difference between a kris student (or a kris Guru like yourself if you don't mind) and a kris collector is very relevant, like a non-musician cannot fully appreciate a Polonaise from Chopin for instance.
As you know the majority of us were not exposed to kris making like yourself, we hardly understand how a blade is made even after carefully reading Groneman's book for instance so we can't appraise a blade in the same way as you do from the craftsmanship aspect... However we can still appreciate the result provided that we got some artistic flair and within the limitations of our knowledge, one major obstacle being that we can be easily fooled by fake blades unless yourself.
Again I agree with you that names are not important but this pamor name investigation was very interesting thanks to you!
Best regards
Jean