Introduction and Assistance request - Naga Sasra 11 Luk?

[A. G. Maisey]

Thank you for your compliments Jay.

I doubt very much that anybody understands "--- all about keris --- ". We all understand a little bit, and even putting together all of today's more or less generally accepted understandings, we still fall short of all understandings over the time that the keris has been with us.

It is probably true to say that there really is no single universal understanding of the keris, so we all just gain what we can.

In Jawa, we find that some things that might be accepted in one keris study group are not accepted a different keris study group. There are many aspects to keris study.

The pamor motif of your keris appears to be a random motif, something that we call "beras wutah" (wos wutah) = scattered rice grains, the talismanic value of this motif is that the possessor will never know want, he will never go hungry. It is the most common pamor motif. Keris blades that have been heavily carved with nagas or some other enhancement very rarely have complex pamor motifs.

In respect of learning about keris. I plodded along for around 30 years scratching away at keris related literature available in English. Then when I was around 40 years of age I was accepted by Empu Suparman as a pupil. By this time I had gained a more or less acceptable ability in Bahasa Indonesia. I was actually accepted by Empu Suparman when I was 39, but he delayed the commencement of my training until I had passed the age of 40, he, and many other senior Javanese men, at that time held the opinion that a man needed to be settled & married & with children & possessions before he was ready for any advanced knowledge. They were very reluctant to impart any advanced understandings to people whom they believed to be still immature.

The principle that Empu Suparman adopted in his teaching was that he would not provide gratuitous information nor instruction. He would answer any question that I asked, but he would not deliver lectures on things I was not ready to understand. I was expected to illustrate my readiness to receive information by asking questions that demonstrated my readiness.

My own approach is somewhat similar:- ask questions and you will get answers.

In your research you should always have an objective, & once that objective has been identified, you can then pursue it.

In my experience, the "shotgun approach" of trying to learn everything at the same time does not produce particularly positive results.

Here is a link to a page in my site, you might find it to be of interest:-

https://www.kerisattosanaji.com/forge-work


Pesi.

I would most definitely remove the wrapping on the pesi, lightly clean & oil the pesi, and replace the wrapping with knitting wool.

[JayHasAKeris]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Thank you for your compliments Jay.

My own approach is somewhat similar:- ask questions and you will get answers.

In your research you should always have an objective, & once that objective has been identified, you can then pursue it.

In my experience, the "shotgun approach" of trying to learn everything at the same time does not produce particularly positive results.

Here is a link to a page in my site, you might find it to be of interest:-

https://www.kerisattosanaji.com/forge-work


Pesi.

I would most definitely remove the wrapping on the pesi, lightly clean & oil the pesi, and replace the wrapping with knitting wool.

Thank you very much I am reading through all of your website and this is among the first I looked at, it is very fascinating! I feel very grateful such a knowledgable person is answering my newbie questions. I feel like talking to the David Attenborough of the Keris world.

If you seriously do not mind, I would probably have dozens of questions to ask, but I really do not want to waste your time. Thank you very much for your insight on the pattern. I guess it makes sense to not use an overly complicated pattern, it would distract from the nagas central role? I am in my mid 40s, married and with children, so I would fulfil those basic requirements I would not be able to be taught the way you have, married with children means my main responsibilities are elsewhere... but when interested in a topic, I try to study it thoroughly.

If I judge your approach correctly, you might think "he posed questions before that he has not yet received answers to. If he thinks these questions are important, he should ask them again". You were right, I asked about the pamor again and you once again gave me an incredibly insightful answer So let me pose the other question that I haven't been able to find the answer to yet... what is my naga "holding"? Could you give me an insight on what the pointy thing below his mouth is?

Thank you so much

[A. G. Maisey]

The pointy thing below the Naga's mouth?

I do not think that our naga is holding it, based upon what I believe I can see in the photos I think it has a couple of functions, firstly, it occupies a position that would be taken by the gandhik if the Naga had not already taken most of that position for his head, secondly it is in a form that might well be able to be interpreted as a representation of a meru, or tumpal , these motifs represent Mount Kailash, abode of the Gods, resting place of the ancestors before they merge to become one with their own personal deity.

The meru has the nature of a shrine, the tumpal is only the name of the motif, but that tumpal motif relates to the meru & of course to Mount Kailash, these come back to the gunungan , gunungan from gunung, gunung = mountain, all mountains are related to Mount Kailash & are thought of as sacred. Mountains in turn can be thought of as not only related to the Gods, but to Siwa (Shiva) in particular.

The lower slopes of Mount Kailash are covered in foliage and these forested slopes are the home of Bhoma, son of Dewa Wisnu & Dewi Pertiwi. He is the guardian of the boundary between the seen & the unseen world, he is a protective spirit who symbolises growth and fertility. We often find him guarding doorways and gateways, especially temples & holy places.

In the wayang, the first puppet that is presented to begin a performance is the gunungan, the other name for the gunungan is "kayon" or "kekayon", this is from the root "kayu" = "wood" but what is inferred is "tree" & specifically, one tree, which is the Tree of Life.

Now, the Tree of Life is also known as the Kalpataru. So symbolically that gunungan or kayon is also the Kalpataru Tree, or more specifically, the Kalpataru tree grows upon Mount Kailash, but Mount Kailash itself then becomes symbolic of not only the earthly meru, but also of Shiva, the Gods, the ancestors, the Kalpataru. Life itself.

If we go to post #3 in this link that Rick previously gave us:-

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...t=pamor+poleng

we can see Pak Pauzan looking at his keris with Kalpataru pamor, this pamor symbolises life.

Now, if we look closely at the our little pointy thing, I am inclined to think I can see that curling upwards from its base we can see some ornamentation that looks like a lung-lungan motif, ie, a vine motif, and this motif symbolises growth & the natural world, so, the lower slopes of Mount Kailash.

It is a good idea to remember that in Javanese culture the more meanings & interpretations that can be attached to something, the stronger that something is. There are many more ways of thinking of just about anything, than only one.

[JayHasAKeris]

Mr. Maisey, thank you so much again for your incredibly detailed explanations. I can't pretend I can fully comprehend your answer yet, but it gives me more to read up on, which I am grateful for! The layers upon layers of symbolism in these blades are stunning.

I have many more questions, but I need to pace them a bit, have to work on the backlog of things to understand first

Going back from the spiritual side to the object of metal, I followed your advice and removed the wrapping. It seems it has been there quite a while, and there was active rust under it, so I removed this (only with camellia seed oil) as best as I could. For the first time, I could also see the white metal that I have learned to associate with the pamor, quite interesting. Definitely not a cheap fake, I can rule that out from the metallurgy.

What I find fascinating about my keris is that it has a spiritual meaning to (try to) understand, a history to research and a historic meaning and on top of that is a fascinating object artfully crafted from different metals. A kind soul has sent me a lot of pictures of various other Naga Sasra blades from a book I do not have access to... that has led to many more questions, but appreciating the metal side of it while cleaning the pesi has led me to comparatively rather simple questions for today: How many hours would it have taken to make a Keris like that? How long for the forging, then how long for the carving? And would the bladesmith/empu be the one to work in all the gold inlays as well? From the pictures I have seen, my blade probably used to have a lot more gold than it does now, and that is a very interesting topic in itself, but for now I just wonder if the empu would do the gold inlays or if a different craftsman would take over the finished blade.

Thank you for your guidance in understanding and appreciating my Keris better

[A. G. Maisey]

If you ask a working keris maker how long it takes to make a keris you are likely to get an answer like 6 months, or a year, or some other rather lengthy period.

I cannot comment on how long it might take other people, but I can say definitely how long it has taken me.

The second keris I made was made under the guidance of Empu Suparman. This keris took about 8 hours over 2 days to forge& I then worked on carving it for a further 16 days, working between 6 & 8 hours each day, the forge work was done by three men, a smith and two strikers, I worked as one of the strikers.

The longest time it took me to make a keris was 49 days. 9 of these days involved 3 men working about 6 to 8 hours per day over a 3 day period, it then took me 40 days working 6 to 8 hours each day to carve it. It was forged in Solo, I carved it in Australia.

I made several keris completely in Australia, & in Australia I needed to work by myself, without a striker, the forge work was done on coke, I used a 12 pound hammer for the heavy work & a 4 pound, one handed hammer for the lighter work, I used a goose neck hold down tool anchored in the pritcel hole to hold the forging for striking with the heavy hammer, it took me about 4 or 5 days of forge work to produce the forging from which to carve the keris, I was not working full days, maybe only 4 or 5 hours each day. These other keris were all straight keris and they each took between 14 & 16 days to carve.

Every keris I have ever made was heat treated, this is not something that is done with most keris made today.

It would take Empu Suparman about 14 days to carve a keris.

You have asked how long it would take to carve a keris like the one you have. I do not know, but I'd guess maybe 2 or 3 times as long as it took me to make something very much more simple.

The empu or pandai keris only makes the blade, separate craftsmen do other work, the gold kinatah work is done by a specialist craftsman.

[JayHasAKeris]

Once again I thank you very much for sharing your insight Someone with great skill took great care to create this, and it took them quite a bit of time. I never realised the carving would take such a long time after the forging process. I wonder what the person who made it would say to us discussing it on the internet today... I reckon they might be as overwhelmed by the mere idea as I am by the symbolism of his creation.

I have a few followup questions on the details of the making of a keris for today. It boils down to: How many people would play a part in creating a keris from raw materials to the finished product?

Someone other than the smith made the coal I guess? Did it have to be special coal for high heat and did the coal have a ritual meaning as well? Someone would have to collect the iron, who did that? And who refined it into a metal that was ready to be forged into a keris? Then there is the empu/pandai keris who made the blade and he was assisted by 2 strikers, if I understood this bit correctly? Were the strikers apprentices or just "hired labour"? After the blade is done, I understand someone else creates the scabbard and the hilt. Who creates the mendak? And who does the kinatah? And who is responsible for imbueing the keris with its spiritual powers?

It seems quite a lot of people would have played a part in creating this, but I have not been able to find out just how many it must have been... however, I am sure you will know I was also wondering if you share pictures of the keris you crafted? I would be very curious, haven't found any yet though.

Thanks again Mr. Maisey, your knowledge is invaluable

[A. G. Maisey]

Jay, my quoted times are based on working with traditional hand tools, not electric tools. I do not know of anybody today who uses the traditional tools. Electric tools are very much faster.

In Australia I used coke, coke is produced by industrial processes from coal. There are various types of coal & various types of coke. The coke I used came from Corrimal Coke works, and was mined in the Illawarra district of NSW, Australia.

When I was learning blacksmithing from Gordon Blackwell, who was very probably the last traditionally trained blacksmith in Australia, I used coal, because Gordon was doing blacksmithing and did not need the coke. Coke is used for forge welding, so I needed to make coke from the coal that Gordon had.

Coke is made from coal in a forge by heating the coal to a level where the impurities are removed, but the burning is stopped before it consumes all the coal, what is left is coke, & that can be used for forge welding. I made several blades with pamor & with steel cores, before I ever learnt anything about keris production in Jawa.

In Jawa I used charcoal for forge work. For ordinary forge work you can use charcoal produced from just about any timber, but the very best timber for charcoal used for welding is charcoal made from teak. In the 1980's through to 2000, this was very difficult to obtain in Central Jawa, & most smiths who needed to weld procured teak charcoal illegally, it was very expensive & very difficult to get.

The iron & steel used in making a keris came from various sources. In olden times iron came to Jawa mostly from China & through trade sources, nickel bearing iron came to Jawa from Luwu in Sulawesi. Over the last couple of hundred years most iron and steel has been recycled, a lot would have come from Europe. The steel used would be produced from the iron by forge processes.

A lot of both old time imported iron & more recent recycled iron needs to cleaned of impurities before it can be used for something as demanding as a blade. The cleaning is forge work, & it involves the repeated welding of the material until no impurities are in evidence. In my experience this forge method of purifying iron takes somewhere between 7 & 11 welds --- ie, forge out, bend, fold, weld --- before the impurities have been removed. We can gauge this by watching the little stars that rise above the forge when the material reaches weld heat, and by the reaction of the material when it is on the anvil & receiving strikes.

I've been talking about coke & charcoal & coal, but i reckon most smiths now use a modern gas forge. I still do a little bit of forge work, I no longer have a forge I can do serious work on, I use a transportable farrier's forge & BBQ charcoal, this OK for light work.

A smith can work alone, as I have usually done, but it is much easier if he has one or two strikers. The smith directs the blow with a light hammer, say 2 pound or less, the striker then hits the same place on the material with a heavy hammer, usually something between 8 pound & 12 pound.

The striker whom Pak Pauzan used was a very small man who had a low level of strength, but he had been breaking big rocks into little rocks since he was a child, this was the work of his family who had supplied gravel for road work for many generations. Pauzan's striker was not really strong enough to use a heavy hammer in the normal way, rather he used an extremely heavy hammer --- something above 20 kilos --- & he acted as a fulcrum point for a pendulum, he would swing it down between his legs & he would normally do the down swing twice, then on third down swing he would hit the material on the anvil. It was incredible to watch.

Some smiths in the western world use a mechanical hammer, something like an Oliver:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIBeGbhXPBw

this youtube representation is pretty primitive, but if you search "blacksmith oliver hammer" you will get a lot of hits that show more modern refined versions of an oliver, these days I think most smiths who are doing serious pattern welding use enormous electric hammers --- or water driven or steam driven.

There really is no traditional apprenticeship system in this area of work in Central Jawa, a man can work as a striker until he thinks he knows enough to set up shop for himself. There are whole villages that are smithing villages. Not many smiths can forge weld.

The old way of making any smith's product & using strikers was for the smith to have a number of strikers --- called"panjak" --- maybe 6 or so men, and rotate them so that no one man could ever get to understand the full process, that full process was normally only taught to the smith's son, or to a man whom he chose to be the inheritor of his knowledge.

The men who make the dress for a keris are specialised workers, they are not regarded as high craftsmen who can be an empu or a pande, but are regarded as ordinary craftsmen or tradesmen. The scabbard & hilt are made by a m'ranggi, or separated, by a tukang wrongko & a tukang jejeran, "wrongko" = scabbard, "jejeran" = keris hilt.

Mendak and selut are made by a specialised jeweller, kinatah work by a different kind of specialised jeweller. The pendok is made by again a specialised craftsman, the engraving & chasing is usually done by a different specialist.

Blade staining is once again a special & separate skill.

In Jawa the names of the specific trade are not used, rather the work is identified with the man who can do it, so we have:-

Pande keris --- keris smith
Warangan --- blade staining
Warongko --- scabbard maker ( m'ranggi wrongko)
Jejeran --- hilt maker ( m'ranggi jejeran)
Pendok --- pendok maker (kemasan)
Mendak/selut --- mendak/selut maker (kemasan)

the pendok maker usually employs the engraver or chaser.

Your question about "spiritual powers" is not one that I am prepared to answer, you need a very considerable foundation before you could be expected to grasp even the beginning of the most basic elements of this. I apologise for my bluntness.

However, I can say this:- the making of a keris as a pusaka, or family heirloom, involves very much more than the simple processes i have tried to explain above, it involves the selection of the material to be used, the selection of days to be worked, multiple offerings, the use of specific mantras during the work, and other attached ceremonies. To the best of my knowledge only one Empu during period following WWII has had this knowledge, he is now retired & his son has taken his place.

The father is Jero Mangku Pande Ketut Mudra, he lives in Bali, he would only make a keris such as I have written about, for a pura (temple) he would never accept an order for such a keris from a person. I first met Ketut Mudra in about 1980, he was working with his father, the family had been the pandes attached to the Klungkung Puri (palace) for many generations. I last spoke with him in, I think, 2024. He is currently not in good health.