Corroded keris

[jagabuwana]

Apologies, here is the keris. The file quality diminished when I resized it but hopefully it gives you a good idea.

[Sajen]

It's a Bugis sepokal blade!

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes, I have cleaned a very great number of blades as bad and worse than this, I can show after pics, but I cannot show before pics. I don't record this sort of thing, its just a job, nothing special.

Household vinegar and patience.

The stain process can get a bit difficult, but the clean process is straight forward.

[Sajen]

Yes, I've cleaned also several keris blades in a similar bad condition like the blade in question but I've used citrus acid instead of vinegar. Like Alan said, it's just a job which need patience.

Regards,
Detlef

[jagabuwana]

Thank you Detlef and Alan.

Some questions:

1) What characterises a sepokal blade? The keris books I have on hand (Groneman and Solyom & Solyom) don't mention it. I have done some cursory research on Google and haven't been able to find any statements or descriptions of sepokal blades, and it seems that both keris luk and keris lurus can be keris sepokal. I could be wrong (maybe it's my eyes..) but from what I can see, keris sepokal are slightly convex, if one were to draw a line following the centre of the blade from peksi to penatas. Is my observation correct, a red herring, or entirely incorrect?

2) Without dressings, what features of this blade make you say it's Bugis? My question is not a challenge or a skepticism towards your assessment, and I am asking only so that I may learn. Interestingly, many blades (though not necessarily dressings) that I am drawn to are bugis keris. There is an aspect about them that I can only describe as bold, strong or aggressive to my eye and feeling.

[A. G. Maisey]

1) this "sepokal" thing seems to be something of a Peninsula naming convention. I do not know how the name came into usage, but it is popular with collectors in the Western World for use as a name for this type of blade.

In Jawa there is a dhapur named "sepokal", but it is supposed to be either a 13 luk or an 11 luk, I forget which. I've never seen one, but I have heard it mentioned.

The name used for the dhapur of the keris shown in this thread by specialist Bugis collectors is similar to "sepokal", it is "sapukala" and from what I can gather it simply refers to a straight blade, a blade that in Jawa we would call "lurus", so personally, I would tend to think of the name as a description rather than a dhapur.

2) in accordance with Javanese (ie, Solonese) tangguh naming conventions the form of a Bugis blade is "like a young bambu shoot", and the faces of the blade are flat, with wide, even kusen (gusen). Usually the gandhik is thin and low, the blumbangan shallow, the gonjo is short, there is no ada-ada, sogokan are very seldom seen. When it is clean you will most likely find that the iron has a texture like sand and if it has pamor --- which is probable --- that pamor will be coarse and white. It is essentially a tool designed to end life, it is not a work of art.

Detlef is absolutely correct, it is a Bugis style of blade and it would named as "sepokal" by most collectors in the Western World. But where it might be from it is very probably impossible to say.

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

The name used for the dhapur of the keris shown in this thread by specialist Bugis collectors is similar to "sepokal", it is "sapukala" and from what I can gather it simply refers to a straight blade, a blade that in Jawa we would call "lurus", so personally, I would tend to think of the name as a description rather than a dhapur.

I believe that Jagabuwana's observation is correct that blades that are considered sapukala or sepokal have a slight arch or curve to them so while they probably can be referred to as lurus they are not entirely straight. I do believe this is seen more as a dhapur that simply a description of any blade that is lurus.

[Paul de Souza]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

1) this "sepokal" thing seems to be something of a Peninsula naming convention. I do not know how the name came into usage, but it is popular with collectors in the Western World for use as a name for this type of blade.

When I first started collecting keris in the late 1980s, if I recall correctly, keris like these were never described to me as sepukal but rather as keris lok 1. As long as there was a curve to the blade like a claw, it was keris lok 1. Sepukal seems to be a "newish" term to describe blades of this sort, coming in the vocabulary here in the 2000s. I am still in the habit of calling them keris lok 1.