The basics of keris understanding?

[David]

Originally Posted by Jussi M.

I will be more specific a bit later on with my actual question but please do note: I make no foolish assumption that there is going to be a consensus on ”what is important and what is not important regarding kerises”.

OK, this analogy might be a bit of a stretch, but it is entertaining:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=J4oKXagF3IE
Like Kai i find myself a bit of an alien from space in the keris world. I am fascinated by it, and read and study and try to understand it, but being so outside of the culture as i am it is difficult to know whether or not i truly grasp the finer details of what i am studying. But like the pope in the Monty Python sketch, "i may not know art, but i know what i like". The only problem with this attitude is that in the context of keris culture what i like could well be absolutely wrong.
To answer Jussi's first question, for me the most important thing in regards to any keris is do i like it. A keris will either call to me or not, often before i have really had a chance to examine it's finer details. So it comes down to what i like (not the cultural parameters) about keris when i pick the next item to add to my collection. What i like is certainly based upon what i have seen and read on the subject, but i am sure that it must also be influenced by my own American upbringing, perhaps not in obvious ways, but certainly on more subtle levels. What i am personally trying to understand is what is "correct" for, say, a Jawa keris from the Javanese perspective or a Bali keris from the Balinese perspective and so forth. I would be more than happy to put forth a list of things that i find important or not about keris, but it will certainly be skewed towards my decidedly Western perspective. This could make for very interesting discussion, but i am not sure it is the information that Jussi is seeking.