Horn Jungayyan twistcore kris

[kino]

Originally Posted by David

I don't know Kino, the baca-baca are what they are. Even if they are not original to this kris i am willing to bet that they are at least tradition done and have been a part of the piece for some time. I don't quite understand the point of collecting ethnographic pieces if we then go ahead and change the piece to meet our own personal aesthetic. Now if it were a recent addition that was poorly crafted or installed or was done outside the culture in a manner that did not speak to the a cultural aesthetic integrity i might consider having the piece proper "restored". But that doesn't seem to be the case with these baca-baca, even if they do seem a bit large.

David,
As I said in my post "my If they were mine I would have them replaced. Just my opinion". To me it would be more pleasing if it were fitted properly.

I know of some Keris collectors that change the dress of the blades and Japanese sword collectors that do the same to meet their own personal taste.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[Bill M]

As David said, they are tradition done and appropriate. Personally if I was having them made, I would have asked them to be smaller, but they look good enough to me.

Bill

[David]

Originally Posted by kino

As I said in my post "my If they were mine I would have them replaced. Just my opinion". To me it would be more pleasing if it were fitted properly.

Yes, i understand it was just your opinion. It was your opinion that i was responding to with one of my own.

Originally Posted by kino

I know of some Keris collectors that change the dress of the blades and Japanese sword collectors that do the same to meet their own personal taste.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Yep, i as well have changed out worn pieces of keris dress such as mendaks and had sheath made for blades without. I have also replaced hilts on a couple of blades when the hilt was either inappropriate for the style of blade (i.e. a Sumatran blade w/ a Sumatran wrongko, but a Javanese hilt), a cheap more modern replacement that didn't do the blade justice, or just simply damaged beyond repair. Dress is most often changed on keris when the old ones have worn out to the point where it is disrespectful to the blade to maintain it as is. While the owner's personal tastes inevitably come into play when making such changes, for me they are changes which are driven more by necessity than taste and a desire to restore the piece to it's former glory.
With Bill's kris you would find it more pleasing if it were "fittted properly", but i'm not convinced that this form is improper. These seem like traditional and indigenously made baca-baca. They look like they have been on the kris for some period of time as well. I can understand that they may not be to your taste, or even mine for that matter, but for me that would not be enough of a reason to go to the trouble of changing them. To me they seem like a completely valid ethnographic variation, and therefore even more collectable from that standpoint, even if my own aesthetic sensibilities would prefer to see thinner ones.

[Jazz]

I think the baka-baka are distractingly oversized. If they were mine I would have them replaced. Just my opinion.

Excellent call, Kino. Not only it's oversized, but it looked thin and unnatural. I'm with you on this one. I would definitely have it changed in a more traditional manner.

[mross]

Intresting. I think this is the first twist-core I have seen with a straight blade.

[Jazz]

I'd like to see the original handle to this blade. Wasn't this exchanged like a couple of years ago?

[Rick]

Originally Posted by mross

Intresting. I think this is the first twist-core I have seen with a straight blade.

I have one quite similar to it; the difference is that my example has not been so radically etched to a topographic state as Bill's is .