Keris Betok on Ebay

[A. G. Maisey]

Like many things in the keris belief system, Shahrial, if you believe it, its true.

[mykeris]

'big-name people have been fooled, including the biggest, most influential and most knowledgeable.'

Yes, you and I could be fooled too. Note: How sure are you on your budas, Alan? It could be fooled again!

[A. G. Maisey]

I bought my first keris buda in about 1970 or 1972.

I started to study them seriously in about 1980.

Apart from experience in handling both genuine and non-genuine KB's I have put together a fairly comprehensive file on KB's, including the indicators for falsification and the indicators for genuine, and the people who are known in the trade for either presenting or creating falsifications of KB's.

Yes, I could be fooled again, but not easily, and not in negatives, but only in positives. What I mean by this is that a KB could be presented to me that I mistook for genuine, when in fact it was not, however, a KB that I identified as not genuine I would be very confident was not genuine.

[mykeris]

Noted and Thanks Alan. Well said. Regards, Mykeris.

[PenangsangII]

for somebody who is technically very less knowledgeable like me, the other option would be "tayuh" by very respectable "penayuh" esp on blade that I suspect as fake or even new very well made keris (artificially aged).

But then again, some dealers manage to imbue "isian" by getting helps from some kyai or bomoh

[mykeris]

My dear Penangsang, Identification through tayuhan is something very very subjective to me, no doubt is right at times but always fall a victim to somebody else.. I would still prefer the logical way of what Alan is doing via research with concrete sampling.

However, Alan could have overlooked at something that he has never encountered before which few people did. Thus, opinion differs. Most of his samples are of deteriorated blades as a result of being buried underground hundreds of years ago. My question is: What happen to those Keris Budos which never experienced the 'ruin' and passed down with special care?. Would the blade look something horrible, 'cripple' like what Alan and I is keeping or just as smooth as it was. Could it be light in weight or how the wesi look like?

I would not swallow everything what Alan said unless he represents the Indonesian majority. However, my personal opinion is: it is still very very safe to absorb Alan's opinion due to his excellent findings and links to distinguished people of keris in Indonesia.

At the same time, I will keep my options open.

[PenangsangII]

thks mykeris, ofcourse in determining the authenticity of a keris we should thoroughly inspect the physical aspect of the blade ist... Tayuh is a totally different method and objective altogether.

I even encountered a newly made koden from madura, but when it was tayuhed, it admitted origin back in demak era..... ,-)

[GIO]

Just a short comment.
Have you noted that all keris claimed to be old (XVII cent.- or even before!) offered over the web are without any sign of rust ?
This is very interesting, considering that even recently-made keris have sometimes small signs of rust