Kris/Kalis with straight blade

[kronckew]

it arrived a n hour or so ago. the brass bands slid off fairly easily. odd - they had a layer of newspaper under them - i guess to tighten them a bit. the odd turks head band is not leather, it's rattan. kris weighs 668 grams w/o the scabbard. feels very good in the hand. well balance and not tip heavy.

the pommel piece was dangling loosely by a thread of leather, so i replaced it with a bit of twisted silver wire. it is silver plated brass sheet metal.

the baca baca are firmly attached to the hilt, which is firmly attached to the blade. the baca baca are a bit loose on the blade and can move towards the centre a bit if i press on the sides along the bolster. might fix that when i re-wrap.

the ganja is definitely different metal. the blade is by comparison grey and the ganja looks quite like silver in comparison. it was a bit grungy so i cleaned it with a rag & some soap & hot water, rinsed, dried. the baca-baca also looks like they are silver. some hammer dent marks where the baca were fitted to the ganja do not expose any base metal, so they are not plated.

- newsflash. they are NOT aluminum and neither is the ganja, which has some black tarnish. i think they are in fact silver. the ganja and the baca are not magnetic!

took pics attached, oiled it.

cleaned & oiled the wood scabbard & added a trio of quick temp. turks heads in black cord to tide me over till i can organise a brass band or three. may add a fourth in a few min. nearer the end than the old one. took some pics with my mobile phone. and added that last band below the old rattan one. i can see what looks like a 'hamon around the edges of the blade which is slightly darker in the middle. there appears to be a small forging flaw on one side.

edited:
STOP THE PRESSES! - did a chemical test on the baca baca and the ganja - they are SILVER!

[kronckew]

did a forum search, seems batarra had a kris with a silver ganja, and spunjer stated he'd likely never see one again! well... here you go.

[Spunjer]

Originally Posted by kronckew

did a forum search, seems batarra had a kris with a silver ganja, and spunjer stated he'd likely never see one again! well... here you go.

thanks for posting this, kronckew! very rare piece, indeed. i believe there was another member here that has the similar type other than Jose. Kino?

[kronckew]

decided not to go with brass bands for now. (can't find my soldering kit )

found a quick source for rattan tho.

got lazy & just did a straight whipping wrap. photo from just after wrapping as it dries. will oil it after it dries.

next on the menu is the grip. inshallah bukrah.

[Battara]

Nice and may still be correct!

[Rafngard]

I was the 2nd place bidder on this one, and a very nice last second snipe if I may so. Well done!

Though I'm sad I lost (especially with the silver ganga!), I'm glad it went to someone here, and in particular someone better suited to take care of it than I.

Also, wow, just wow. A very nice Kris.

Have fun,
Leif

[kronckew]

sorry for sniping you, but i couldn't let this one go. it wanted to live with me.

i have been sniped out of a couple nice things myself, but i always bid my maximum bid in the last seconds, don't want to encourage others to spend more than they can afford on impulse . many times the current high bidder has also bid his max and i lose anyway, or another person has bid higher also at the end. moral of this is always bid what you think is your best offer, sometimes you win low, sometimes you still lose.

ebay is weirdly politically correct anyway, it won't let me bid on perfectly legal antique knives, tho swords, sabres, axes, spears, halberds, tanks, field artillery, tactical nukes, battleships, kitchen knives* are OK. was watching a nice forrester's hunting sword/dagger last week, went to bid & ebay rejected me due to their policy of not allowing UK residents to buy these evil people murderering weapons of mass destruction. (i then tried bidding thru ebay USA, same result.) a number of years ago some liberal lefty newspaper reporter did a story on how easy it was for children to buy horrible sharp pointy folding samurai knives and dagger on ebay. ebay, ever PC, only allowed people with a verified debit/credit card to bid on them as they were nominally over 18. (you can only legally buy one if over 18.mm i am a few times older than that) the lefty then pointed out yet again that some banks issued debit cards to 17 yr. olds. thus the total ban.

(the above mentioned (pre nazi) hunting sword also had the evil nasty sheeple scaring word 'dagger' in the description' which i assume triggered the prohibition - it wound up going for a bit more than i tried to bid anyway)

*- most knife 'crimes' in the UK are done with kitchen knives, or cheap stainless steel chinese 'samurai' swords/knives. i recall one news article mentioning a teen-aged felon was caught with a '9 inch samurai sword'. nice PC newspeak propaganda, that. apparently there has not been any significant crime with expensive antique or custom knifes.

[kino]

Originally Posted by Spunjer

thanks for posting this, kronckew! very rare piece, indeed. i believe there was another member here that has the similar type other than Jose. Kino?

I just saw this. Amazing memory Spunjer.
Here is the thread
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...highlight=Kris

Kronckew - if you haven't progressed any further on the decision of wrapping the hilt, perhaps some braided rattan gaucho knots.

I did this one with gaucho knots and a Spanish ring knot.

[kronckew]

you overestimate my skills with braiding. i'm considering a 4-part braided 1st layer in dark brown 2mm braided organic string with an overlay of intermittent bands of 1 mm. black string. all lacquered after i'm happy with it. torn out and try something else if not.

had a few things going , hope to do something this week when the fit isn't hitting the shan anymore.

[David]

Wayne, i can only speak for myself, of course, but i certainly wasn't implying that just because some of these renovations may have been done outside the Philippines that you should have to now change them. Personally i probably would have left the bands on the sheath alone (well, maybe not the crimped one ), but unless i thought i could really improve the look of the thing i would probably leave it alone. I personally wasn't pointing out the renovations as a "bad" thing, just trying to establish what was what in that process.
I suspected the possibility of the silver gangya (and asang-asang). I have seen this before, but can't recall where. Congrats on that, a good score. I seriously doubt this was a Western renovation, though it may not have been the original.
On the pommel band, i think you might want to push that more towards the pommels that the top of the leather wrap is covered.

[kronckew]

the main crinkled scabbard band had to go, it was almost professionally crinkled/scalloped. the other one was also crinkled. looks like whoever did it used a needle nosed pliers to bend/fan it it may be salvageable. the other circumferentially grooved one just looked odd with the others gone. i almost left it. i'll make ome plain brass ones & reuse the grooved one. gives me something to do

i figured out the pommel piece needed to be back further after the photos. i've reposition it. will finalise it when i re-wrap.

i want to do the minimal amt. to the hilt, will likely leave the clamps as they are. they are NOT soldered by the way. the grip strip pieces are bent at the bolster end into an L shape and the end inserted between the baca baca and the ganja, flush with it and not protruding beyond the baca.

will decide more when the leather comes off. Primum non nocere.

[kai]

Hello Wayne,

the pommel piece was dangling loosely by a thread of leather, so i replaced it with a bit of twisted silver wire. it is silver plated brass sheet metal.

I believe this needs to close a bit more (after removing the leather).

the baca baca are firmly attached to the hilt, which is firmly attached to the blade. the baca baca are a bit loose on the blade and can move towards the centre a bit if i press on the sides along the bolster. might fix that when i re-wrap.

Some play of the clamps is not unusual - no need to go at great lengths unless you plan to hit a lot of tough objects with the sword...

the ganja is definitely different metal. the blade is by comparison grey and the ganja looks quite like silver in comparison. it was a bit grungy so i cleaned it with a rag & some soap & hot water, rinsed, dried.

Real silver is a great catch! I have seen a very few kris with a non-iron gangya like this that appeared to be made from brass. One more made from silver; and one suassa?

the baca-baca also looks like they are silver. some hammer dent marks where the baca were fitted to the ganja do not expose any base metal, so they are not plated.

Are the strips soldered to the clamps? If so, I'd posit this attachment mode to be fairly recent (and non-traditional) - probably being done when doing that leather wrap.

Please post close-ups when you disassemble the hilt! (I'd suggest to cut those strips and replace them with thinner silver bands which could probably run inside of the ferrule. IMHO this would look much neater.)

Regards,
Kai