Layers, layers, layers
The Keris is welded in layers, two sides containing iron(s) with pamor material and in the center a layer of steel (most times).
However to know the number of layers the sides of a Keris contain, multiplying the number of layers before welding, times the number of folds gives an idea but does not give a correct number of layers as result.
The more times the material is folded, the larger the deviaton between the real number of layers and the calculated.
When an Empu, makes a package (stack) of three layers of iron with between them two layers of pamor material and he folds this once, then the new formed bar, after welding, has five layers of iron and four layers of pamor.
The middle layer is a layer of one material, thicker but one layer.
So the total number is nine layers and not ten.
The thickness of the layers will differ more after each weld. The layers on the outside of the stack oxidize a lot. After each weld, the package will lose about five percent of its weight. The inner layers of iron as well as the pamor layers are protected against oxidation (exept from the thin ends facing the outside of the package).
After some welds, the material of the iron layers on the outside has burned away and the pamor comes on the outside of the package. The pamor will also oxidize the next weld.
The photographs of the samples show the effects. The number of layers is 29 instead of a calculated number of fourty. A large difference.
In 1904 Dr. Groneman counted the number of layers of pamor material only, not all the layers. A better way, but not perfect too since some burn away.
In the past the empus were very carefully in welding, because the iron and the pamor was relatively quite expensive.
Modern empu's spill more material as the photograph of a welding stroke of an empu shows.The sparks are fluid metal.
Dr. Groneman describes that Karja di Krama starts with about 2 kg material, pamor and iron. Modern empu's start sometimes with more than 6 kg material.
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