Kris naga

[A. G. Maisey]

Anything is always possible David, but I do not believe that this is an old blade, on my monitor I can clearly see chisel marks & file marks in the body of the blade. Everything is too crisp and too robust.

But forgetting the old blade idea, why could the blade not be the work of several people? This is common now and it was also the case in times past. Very often the man who is credited with production of a keris is the guide & quality control, different workers will have skill in one area or another of production, and then there are trainees.

We're talking here about the sculpting of a blade, but this also applies in smithing work, it does & did in Jawa, and also in Western societies. In England in the days when the smith was Mister Fixit, not all smiths were equal, there was often only a single smith in a village who was recognised as the man to go for any welding work, not all smiths could complete large or difficult welds, the work was sub-contracted to the specialist.

It is no different with keris production and weapons production in general. We see the object, we talk to the man who claims authorship, but there could be half a dozen other craftsmen behind that "author".

When I was doing a lot of damascus work I made a lot of knife blades that I sold to other makers, and not just local Australian makers. I never put a maker's mark on my work. During all the time I was making & selling to other makers only one other maker credited me with production of the blade. This did not annoy me in the slightest, I was just doing common work and getting paid for it. Why should I complain about not getting free advertising?