Balinese blade with pamor miring

[A. G. Maisey]

Gustav, I have several examples of the Madura/Bali style wrongko and I have seen others, and I have handled perhaps thousands of the Jogja style wrongko. In my opinion there is no similarity at all between these two types. I do agree that in the profile, as seen in a photograph, there is a slight resemblance because of the rounded form, but size and cross section is very different in each.

As to the slorok, the Jogja example you have shown is a bunton, and in the hand, you would find this to be a very small, slight wrongko, The pendok is embossed, not krawang work, as is the Bali/Madura slorok.

Many old Bali pendok are made in two parts,. with a slorok, but I have yet to see one that is ornamented with krawangan. These two part Bali pendok are not removable from the wrongko, but are glued in place with damar, or sometimes fish glue, they are also quite bulky.

The topengan on this Bali/Madura keris is not really typical of the style.

By any measure this keris that Bernet Kempers chose to record is a very unusual keris. Unusual to the point of being peculiar, because firstly it is a style that is quite rare:- Bali/Madura, and secondly its mixes styles, forms and motifs. Frankly, I have a great deal of difficulty in aligning it in total with any specific location. The blade is Bali style, but not Bali execution, the hilt and scabbard, if stripped of ornamentation, are Bali/Madura, but the pendok mixes the execution and form one would expect to see from Ngayogyakarta with motifs that seem to more or less Javanese generic.

In my view this is a peculiar keris.

[Gustav]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

As to the slorok, the Jogja example you have shown is a bunton, and in the hand, you would find this to be a very small, slight wrongko, The pendok is embossed, not krawang work, as is the Bali/Madura slorok.

Alan, just to clarify: I do compare only the shape of Gambar of both examples. My remark regarding the style of Krawangan work on Slorok was perhaps misleading.

[A. G. Maisey]

Yes Gustav, I do understand that you were only comparing the shape of the gambar or atasan of the wrongko, however, this shape is only similar in profile, and this same similarity can be seen in mainline balinese wrongkos, and wrongkos from places other than just Bali/Madura/ Jogja.

However, when we hold these wrongkos in our hands and look at the topographic sculpting, and the cross sectional variation, even apart from variation in size, it is very obvious that we are looking at totally different wrongkos.

[Gustav]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Yes Gustav, I do understand that you were only comparing the shape of the gambar or atasan of the wrongko, however, this shape is only similar in profile, and this same similarity can be seen in mainline balinese wrongkos, and wrongkos from places other than just Bali/Madura/ Jogja.

However, when we hold these wrongkos in our hands and look at the topographic sculpting, and the cross sectional variation, even apart from variation in size, it is very obvious that we are looking at totally different wrongkos.

Alan, I agree absolutely.

Yet the same is true comparing between B.K. Pendok and a common Jogja Pendok. The shape, the size and the ornaments are different. The idea of a Pendok with Slorok worked in Krawangan style is the same.

It appears, this could be one of the rare cases, where Topengan seems to be integrated in Pendok/made at the same time.

[A. G. Maisey]

As I said Gustav:- a very peculiar keris that were I inclined I could attach all sorts of speculation to, but as you know, I don't like speculation much, so I'll just leave it at that:- peculiar.

[Bugis Keris]

So what is the mean Pamor miring for this keris?
i mean what the function if own this kris with Pamor miring

Thank You