Planning to make a wrongko

David · 23rd April 2017, 08:58 PM

I cannot disagree with anything Alan has said here and agree that people probably had not responded to you since there wasn't much they felt the could say.
I will say that illustrations would be very helpful to instigate discussion here, either with photographs of sarungs you are thinking of emulating or drawings or initial photographs of the sheath you are actually creating.
The stem of the sarung that came with this keris (that you show in another thread) is fairly useless and not of any particular value as is, so i agree with Alan that you might as well make use of it when constructing your new sheath.
I would suggest that you spend quite a lot of time looking at photos from different angles on Bugis style sheaths. This is especially important if you do not have an example in hand if you would like to get the porportions and nuances as close to acceptable as possible. Remember that the Bugis are not limited to one small area of Indonesia and their sheath styles do have subtle differences as you move from one area to another.
If you start posting images of your project i would image you will get more feedback as you progress.

A. G. Maisey · 23rd April 2017, 09:51 PM

Johan, I just had a look at the gandar that David mentioned.

It appears to have lost the tongues at the top for attachment to the gambar.

To fix this problem you make a couple tongues out of bambu , inlet the inside of the gandar and glue the new tongues in with 5 minute Araldite. You use bambu because you can make the tongues as thin as you need and there is still strength in the material. Don't forget to score the inletting and the tongue to improve adherence of glue.

On this old gandar it is obvious that the buntut was not attached by use of a tenon on the end of the gandar, but I believe you will find a mortice where a tenon from the buntut fitted into the gandar.

If you have acacia woods available in South Africa, you might find that you can match colour and grain approximately with that material. If not, don't worry about it, finish the one you've started on.

23rd April 2017, 08:58 PM	#1
David Keris forum moderator Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Nova Scotia Posts: 7,219	I cannot disagree with anything Alan has said here and agree that people probably had not responded to you since there wasn't much they felt the could say. I will say that illustrations would be very helpful to instigate discussion here, either with photographs of sarungs you are thinking of emulating or drawings or initial photographs of the sheath you are actually creating. The stem of the sarung that came with this keris (that you show in another thread) is fairly useless and not of any particular value as is, so i agree with Alan that you might as well make use of it when constructing your new sheath. I would suggest that you spend quite a lot of time looking at photos from different angles on Bugis style sheaths. This is especially important if you do not have an example in hand if you would like to get the porportions and nuances as close to acceptable as possible. Remember that the Bugis are not limited to one small area of Indonesia and their sheath styles do have subtle differences as you move from one area to another. If you start posting images of your project i would image you will get more feedback as you progress.

23rd April 2017, 09:51 PM	#2
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,019	Johan, I just had a look at the gandar that David mentioned. It appears to have lost the tongues at the top for attachment to the gambar. To fix this problem you make a couple tongues out of bambu , inlet the inside of the gandar and glue the new tongues in with 5 minute Araldite. You use bambu because you can make the tongues as thin as you need and there is still strength in the material. Don't forget to score the inletting and the tongue to improve adherence of glue. On this old gandar it is obvious that the buntut was not attached by use of a tenon on the end of the gandar, but I believe you will find a mortice where a tenon from the buntut fitted into the gandar. If you have acacia woods available in South Africa, you might find that you can match colour and grain approximately with that material. If not, don't worry about it, finish the one you've started on.