Orientation of the grip of this keris

[A. G. Maisey]

I have two of these keris, David.

One has the end of the grip broken off , making it considerably shorter in the grip. (pictured)

One of these keris belonged to my mother's father, that is, my grandfather, and he brought it to Australia around 1920.

The other one I bought at an arms fair.

I have taken both these keris apart, and both had the grips fixed in the reverse position with damar, I needed to heat the blades to remove the hilts.

I have also seen an old photograph of a keris being worn in this way.I saw it in a book, but I cannot remember which book.

Yes, I agree, this way of mounting a hilt is an exception to the rule, but if a tang has been purposely bent to allow such mounting, I believe it is very likely that the hilt was fixed in that way in its place of origin.

It probably comes down to just how the hilt was fixed, and how it sat on the blade when moved to a normal position before the tang was straightened.

One other thing:- both of my keris that had hilts mounted in this way have blades that appear to share relevant characteristics with Freddy's blade, they are broad, have very stiff gonjos, and the kembang kacang is very internal. To me, they seem to be variations of the same type of blade. If we were talking tangguh---which I don't think we can with these types of blades---I'd be inclined to think they were candidates to be classified into the same tangguh.

Yes, I accept that in the case of Freddy's keris, we do not know its history, and no mention of the way in which it was secured is made. Maybe I was a little too positive in my previous remarks, however, although I could be wrong, I don't think I am.