Wooden hilt cup and composite wood hilt

A. G. Maisey · 9th July 2025, 02:50 AM

Thanks Adam.

Yes, I can see all the little patches, I can also see a spot of some sort of filling agent. That fill is most likely to be a fill where somebody has drilled the tang hole too deep & the drill bit has gone through the wood, sometimes when this happens the drill bit takes a lot more of the wood than just the little penetration hole.

What normally happens with any sort of damage to a hilt is that in-culture, the hilt will be replaced.

The keris is an item of dress, and nobody wants to be seen with his sarung or shirt patched, nor his keris dress patched, repairs to keris dress, especially large repairs & where a repair will be seen, are an earmark of somebody on hard times. Nobody wants that. So it is replace, not repair.

9th July 2025, 02:50 AM	#4
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,132	Thanks Adam. Yes, I can see all the little patches, I can also see a spot of some sort of filling agent. That fill is most likely to be a fill where somebody has drilled the tang hole too deep & the drill bit has gone through the wood, sometimes when this happens the drill bit takes a lot more of the wood than just the little penetration hole. What normally happens with any sort of damage to a hilt is that in-culture, the hilt will be replaced. The keris is an item of dress, and nobody wants to be seen with his sarung or shirt patched, nor his keris dress patched, repairs to keris dress, especially large repairs & where a repair will be seen, are an earmark of somebody on hard times. Nobody wants that. So it is replace, not repair.