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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
Interesting stuff, seems like the meteor metal story was part of the 'Bowie knife' myth as well. While these knives were profoundly fabled for thier deadly fighting properties, not sure if balancing was included. We also know that meteoric iron was well known in Indonesia in a number of kerises with material from the 17th century event in Jakarta (if recalling correctly) and in some degree this extraterrestrial metal was used, again do not recall the balance property.
I agree with your perspective in an extremely skilled blacksmith, and remain unaware of any gyroscopic properties in meteoric iron  |
Yes, i do not think that the material (meteorite or otherwise) contributes to the balancing properties of the blade.
Jim, for the record the first known fall of a collected iron-bearing meteorite in the books is the Prambanan fall that was found in 1797. It is certainly possible that there were other off the record falls that were used in the manufacture of keris, but there is no old writings from the day that i know of that support it. So we only really have evidence to support the idea of keris made with meteoric ore at the very start of the
19th century.