North Sumatra Klewang

[kai]

Hello Séverin,

I think I will try to remove the varnish on the wooden part of the handle but I dare not touch the rattan.

It looks as if the whole hilt (including the disk at the base of the blade - possibly integral to the wooden hilt?) got dunked into some stubborn sort of paint - please confirm. If so, I doubt this was done during its working life. OTOH, painted pommels are known from Sumatra (and the Malay world in general).

If you repeatedly rub the whole hilt with linseed oil (or paraffin oil depending on your preference) over weeks/months, this may loosen up at least some of the paint, especially if it got applied later on already worn-in materials. If it happens to stuck well, it might be modern paint and/or applied to freshly restored rattan braiding.

Why would these Klewang be batak? on those that I saw I only found typical sumatra decoration, but none specifically batak. (except perhaps the overall shape of the handle).

I'm with you in not seeing any stylistic details that specifically support any Batak origin; even the hilt shape of the typical sukul jering is quite a bit different.

IMHO, the common attribution to all or any of the Batak groups hasn’t convincingly established yet. We have the names hulu iku mie and hulu/sukul simpul from northern Sumatra (documented by Kreemer during the early 20th century) for this hilt type. There are examples of this sword in museum collections which seem to have picked up in southern Sumatra (i.e. Palembang), too.

I guess that the notion of this blade pattern specifically being of "Batak" origin got stuck in the mind of many collectors based on Albert’s book. Since the nice piece in Fig.268 is from his own collection, I hope he can share its provenance with us.

It's quite possible that this type of sword was known and utilized with some Batak groups; it seems pretty safe to assume that it also was utilized in other regions though.

I'll try to write up some preliminary info from my research when I find a bit of spare time.

Regards,
Kai

[Athanase]

For the paint, yes it seems to have originally covered the entire handle.
The rattan braiding must have dried and retracted because it is moving a bit. I was thinking of trying on a small area with turpentine oil.

[Sajen]

Kai is correct, we have had the discussion before. I guess that Albert was going with Sibeth. See this thread: http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...ht=Batak+sword

So it's possible that these swords originated in Palembang. The sword in the above thread has carvings at the handle which look more Palenbang than Batak.

Regarding the paint at the handle, I would try very carefully different agents like alcohol, benzin, acetone and so on. But like said, very very carefully. At the wooden part of the handle I would use the finest steel wool. Oiling like Kai suggests can help lose the paint.
With a clean blade and handle it will look great IMVHO. I don't think that the paint has something to do with its history.

Regards,
Detlef