Planning to make a wrongko

[kai]

Hello Johan,

Sorry for coming in late!

I have considered the correct method kindly explained by Alan, but I'm wondering if I could get a nice solid attachment by drilling a few holes into the gandar, inserting some brass pins and glueing them into place with their ends protruding, and then marking them against the opposite face of the gambar, drilling holes to accept the pins. When the two pieces are brought together for epoxy glueing, the pins are themselves glued and slid into the holes. (The pins needn't be brass, they can be bambu too.)

Since the gandar is made of rather thin (and traditionally lighter) wood, securing by pins would not really be robust enough for use. Usually the gandar has protruding "lips" which are easy and robust to fix a gambar/sampir to. You could try to attach some replacement on the inside of the gandar which will be easier and more stable to fix the crosspiece to.

I'm with Gustav on stylistic considerations.

I am of the opinion that this joint on any keris scabbard is its weakest point. Making the scabbard out of a single piece of wood would certainly make that spot stronger - I recall reading that this has been done; however, I don't recall ever seeing a scabbard without a join line at that point.

Try a search of this forum for waranka iras - that should give some hits. These are a hell to craft though...

Regards,
Kai

[David]

Originally Posted by kai

Try a search of this forum for waranka iras - that should give some hits. These are a hell to craft though...

I'm afraid that search will not yield any return Kai. English spellings for Javanese terms vary, but you will get the most hits for that off "warangka iras", a bunch more off "wrongko iras" and a few more still as "wrangka iras".