Bugis Keris with madura hilt for comments.

[kai]

Hello Séverin,

I recently made a madness by buying this Keris without even seeing his blade ...

The sheath, blade and Selut are Bugis style but with a beautiful ivory handle Madura. The patina is very beautiful is the very fine carving.

Yes, very nice hilt, for sure!

The blade shows some deep traces of rust. She seems to have been heavily scoured and highly re-sharpened. Unfortunately it seems to have eroded the reliefs of the blade.

The blade is very odd and I hope others will chime in, too!

I'm not convinced that the oddness really is a result of any later re-shaping: Already the sosoran is unusual and this would be tough to change.

Could you specify length, thickness, etc., please?

The sheath is partially covered with wire covered with black lacquer below the Toli-Toli. I think it is not original because the opening seems to have been re-cut.

Thread rather than wire? I agree that the fit is weird. Thus, we can't use the scabbard as a pointer nor the hilt with non-matching selut...

it is possible that this wild mix is a genuine combo regardless. However, this would be tough to establish...

I have often seen Bugis keris with ivory handles from Madura, it's recent assembly? or is it old assembly?

I haven't seen that many, I believe. (At least not with convincing provenance, I guess.)

How about the patina inside the scabbard?

Regards,
Kai

[Athanase]

Lenght : 33,5cm
thickness (ganja) : 0,5cm
width (under the kembang kacang) : 2,9cm

Inside the scabbard the patina is a little old but seems less old than the outside patina., exept a very little part which has been re-cut more recently to insert the base of the selut.

[Rick]

That blade though.....

[RobT]

Hi All,

I have never seen another keris blade like it but the pamor appears to follow the edge of the blade on both sides so I don't know how much the blade could have been reshaped. To me it generally has that sturdy, thick base look that I like so much about Bugis (especially Sulawesi) blades. This one just tapers more sharply than I have ever seen. I really like it because it has an air of direct lethality about it. A "no fooling around, you mess with me and I'm going to do you in with this thing" visual statement I find appropriate for an edged weapon.

Sincerely,
RobT