Gavin, when I asked that question I had in my mind that all anybody who could see needed to do was open up "Keris Jawa" and have a bit of a browse.
It is very seldom that we can give a halfway decent opinion of a keris classification from a photo. Segaluh is about the only one I can think of where just about anybody should get it. But with this Surakarta keris, probably made in Palembang, it was just so obvious that I was certain somebody would get it, and it is a really interesting blade. Worth the time to consider the nature of keris coming out of Sumatra.
Actually the very best book for any beginner in keris is not Haryoguritno, you need a pretty decent level of knowledge to sort the wheat from the chaff. The best beginner's book on Javanese keris is Garrett & Bronwen Solyom's "World of the Javanese Keris". If you want to understand keris, that's where you start.
When considering keris books written by Indonesians it is always worth remembering that the motivation for writing these books should not ever be considered to be the same as the motivation for somebody who is not Indonesian to write such a book.
Garrett & Bronwen's book was written purely to provide solid knowledge to people who lacked that knowledge. It has no error.
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