Keris with pesi repair?

[Sajen]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

I have seen this in a number of Javanese blades.

I have also seen at least one blade where the tang was inserted into the blade base, and erosion had exposed part of the tang; I have also seen a very old blade where the tang had been inserted into the blade base and it is now loose. These two examples are in my possession, but I have not seen them for a while, and I do not know precisely where they are. In both these blades the tang material appears to be the same as the blade material.

I am not altogether certain that these methods of fixing a tang to the blade are repairs. I strongly suspect that these tangs were fixed in this way at the time the blade was made.

When a blade was made in accordance with traditional requirements, it was made to a specific formula which involved length as well as mid blade width. There are a number of ways to approach this creation of a numeric value attached to the blade, but the blade value always needs to be balanced to the requirement for the person the blade was made for.

I do not know, but I strongly suspect that this method of tang fixing was used when material in the forging from which the blade was made, was insufficient to permit a tang to be forged from that forging. In an ideal world, this would, of course, not occur, but in virtually all human endeavour there is an economic bottom line.

There are a number of ways to repair a broken keris tang, all of them much more simple, much more cost effective, and much stronger than this inlet method of fixing a tang.

Thank you very much for this information!

Regards,

Detlef

[mrwizard]

Thank you, Alan. This is a very interesting piece of information.

I don't know anything about keris making and the information available on the web is rather unspecific. I wrongly assumed that the tang was part of the original package like it is done for modern european damascene techniques as shown in this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F27WzpIAiQ

Of course it is also possible to use a compact package and weld in a seperate tang during the final folding step of the package. This saves precious metal and is a lot easier than performing an inlay repair on an old blade.
Another benefit is that the smith can not only make up for wrongly calculated material but has good control of the pamor at the base of the blade. Drawback is that if too much material is removed the outline of the welded-in tang becomes visible.

So the rectangular shapes we see might indeed as well be the result of the original manufacturing technique.

Best Regards,
Thilo

[A. G. Maisey]

Thilo, normally the tang would be forged into the forging used to carve the keris from, but if there was a miscalculation and a specific numeric value needed to be satisfied, then one way of doing this would be to mechanically fix the tang.

Yes, the tang could be scarf welded, however it would be useless to scarf weld to the uncarved forging, as the carving would cut through the weld, and a weld after the carving was complete would destroy artistic value and be very obvious.

The easy solution would be to mechanically fix the tang, and if this were to be done with a shrink fit near to the end of carving, another weld heat could be put into the sorsoran and the tang would be quite firmly attached.

All this is hypothesis, but when we so have many easy ways to repair a tang, I just cannot see anybody going for this very difficult method of inletting, or dovetailing.

I have made a few keris, and I do understand the making process.I have put forward the idea of miscalculation, but there is also the possibility of a flaw that is uncovered during carving. If a flaw is uncovered that interferes with the integrity of the point or the tang, one way of rescuing something from the exercise would be to remove the flawed section of forging and fix a separate tang.

Possibly if we thought about this matter long enough we could come up with other possibilities, but the one possibility that I have some difficulty in accepting is the one of a repair. It just doesn't make sense.

[mrwizard]

Again, thank you for the very interesting information.
There is really a lot to learn from this forum

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Yes, the tang could be scarf welded, however it would be useless to scarf weld to the uncarved forging, as the carving would cut through the weld, and a weld after the carving was complete would destroy artistic value and be very obvious.

And exactly that is what i thought could be the origin of the rectangular shapes right above the peksi. Of course, as you indicated, it would be a rather stupid idea to choose a technique that is prone to lead to inferior results that early in the manufacturing process.

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Possibly if we thought about this matter long enough we could come up with other possibilities, but the one possibility that I have some difficulty in accepting is the one of a repair. It just doesn't make sense.

You are of course right, such a complicated repair doesn't make if there are easier ways that don't compromise the appearance of the keris.
Therefore i have to agree that shape we see in the specimen above is most likely the result of a repair/fix
during manufacturing.

Best Regards,
Thilo