Balinese keris advice

[David]

Originally Posted by JeffS

Wow, I have gotten very lucky. Thank you for the advice. Best leave this at that. I would, however, be very interested to hear more regarding Balinese warriors and their use of keris as weapons within the proper context and nuance you mention. I am thinking of older photos with rough looking armed men with a large keris carried on the back. I know I've seen threads with lively keris/weapon discussions. I will go back and read on this and start a new thread if the specific Balinese context is not already well traveled ground here.

I completely agree with Alan that it would be misleading to consider the Bali keris only in terms of weaponry alone. While it is my understanding that the keris was indeed employed as a weapon in Bali, its place within that culture is so much larger than that and i don't think the keris was ever considered a prime weapon of war even if it was fought with at times.
I also agree with Alan that you should not be thinking about changing anything about this classic keris dress. The sheath, though worn, looks to be in pretty good condition, made from select and desirable timoho pelet wood, as is the Cekah Solas hilt. While perhaps not exactly rare, old examples of these hilts are at least less common and it suits this keris quite well. As Alan mentioned, the only thing i would consider changing about this ensemble would be to add a wewer/uwer (hilt ring) to it. While old, undamaged uwer may indeed be more difficult to find, if you look around some you can probably find a fairly decent new one that might fit the bill.I used to see these quite often on eBay.
When you think about images of "rough looking armed men" carrying keris you may well be thinking about this image. You will note that the gentleman on the right carries a keris at his back and the hilt on his keris is indeed a the Cekah Solas form. This image presents these gentlemen as warriors, but it is obviously a set-up photo so it's impossible to say for sure how much of this image was orchestrated by the photographer for effect. But as i mentioned before, it is my understanding that these Cekah Solas hilts were favoured by warriors due to their grip. When i went searching for where i had seen this before it does seem to be information that was suggested by Lalu Djelenga. Still, i believe it is important to approach keris form a position that focusses on far more than martial applications.