Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

A. G. Maisey · 21st November 2022, 09:42 PM

Back in about 1980 I was in a warung in Pasar Triwindu in Solo, I was looking for stuff to buy, keris, or anything else of interest. They had a basket of junk, stuff that was going to be dumped because it was not worth the time needed to make it saleable.

There was a keris in this basket, a complete keris, but absolutely & completely a mess, the blade was thick with rust and had been twisted into a corkscrew shape and bent as well, it was tied to its wrongko with a bit of twine, the wrongko was deeply covered in filth and it was cracked, pendok bent and twisted.

I picked it up & asked how much, the dealer said;- "That's just rubbish, take it if you want it"

I took it.

I totally restored that keris, which involved taking it back to the forge and straightening it out. It turned out to be a very old, good quality Pajajaran keris, and the wrongko also came up beautifully.

Then there was the time I bought a pre-WWII Joseph Rogers two blade pocket knife with pick & tweezers complete with its plaited belt pouch. I bought this at an antiques fair for $5 --- oh yeah, it had never been sharpened.

If you just look for things often enough you do sometimes get lucky.

RobT got lucky.

21st November 2022, 09:42 PM	#9
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,085	Back in about 1980 I was in a warung in Pasar Triwindu in Solo, I was looking for stuff to buy, keris, or anything else of interest. They had a basket of junk, stuff that was going to be dumped because it was not worth the time needed to make it saleable. There was a keris in this basket, a complete keris, but absolutely & completely a mess, the blade was thick with rust and had been twisted into a corkscrew shape and bent as well, it was tied to its wrongko with a bit of twine, the wrongko was deeply covered in filth and it was cracked, pendok bent and twisted. I picked it up & asked how much, the dealer said;- "That's just rubbish, take it if you want it" I took it. I totally restored that keris, which involved taking it back to the forge and straightening it out. It turned out to be a very old, good quality Pajajaran keris, and the wrongko also came up beautifully. Then there was the time I bought a pre-WWII Joseph Rogers two blade pocket knife with pick & tweezers complete with its plaited belt pouch. I bought this at an antiques fair for $5 --- oh yeah, it had never been sharpened. If you just look for things often enough you do sometimes get lucky. RobT got lucky.