Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Meteoric iron used for keris's vs. for Indian weapons

Henk · 7th February 2005, 06:22 PM

Nechesh,

Of course the discussion should be academic and not based on rumours. Kraton empus did make keris for clients outside the kraton and used the surplus of the prambanan meteorite they received to make a court keris. I did read it in a dutch book: De Inlandsche Kunstnijverheid in Nederlandsch Indie (The Inland Artwork in Dutch Indie) by J.E. Jasper and MAS Pirngadie. This book was printed and published on behalve of the dutch government in The Hague in 1930.

I translate for you the passage in that book: "As pamormetal was and is used in the royal countries, the home of pamorforge art, metoric iron, that contains few nickle and is known as pamor parambanan. It is kept in the kraton of Soerakarta. Every time when the Soesoehoenan or other courtmembers want to forge a weapon, often a much too large piece of the meteor Iron was given to the empu, who had usually left a very large part of it.
That's why that it was possible to buy pieces of the pamor parambanan for the very high price of fl 2,50 to fl 10,00 for a rejal (30 gram)" That means in the currency of today the very high price of 1 euro to 4,50 euro for 30 gram.

About the use and being well known of the meteoric iron you misunderstood me. Using meteoric iron outside Indonesia for pamorforging is not well known.
Jens wrote that in India two swords, a dagger and a knife was made from the iron of a meteor. What I ment to say is that the use of the parambanan meteor for pamor weapons is well known (at least here in Holland) and that "a weapon made from the meteor was considered as the true holy weapon with pamor parambanan or pamor toenggal" (I quoted the book) Pamor forging was also done with other metals. The same book mention "the import of nickle bars, the pure Krupp nickle from the factory of A. Krupp from Berndorf, Germany. When this was used the pamordrawing came up very clear and shiny. Much more then when the real pamor iron of Parambanan was used."

7th February 2005, 06:22 PM	#11
Henk Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 1,209	Nechesh, Of course the discussion should be academic and not based on rumours. Kraton empus did make keris for clients outside the kraton and used the surplus of the prambanan meteorite they received to make a court keris. I did read it in a dutch book: De Inlandsche Kunstnijverheid in Nederlandsch Indie (The Inland Artwork in Dutch Indie) by J.E. Jasper and MAS Pirngadie. This book was printed and published on behalve of the dutch government in The Hague in 1930. I translate for you the passage in that book: "As pamormetal was and is used in the royal countries, the home of pamorforge art, metoric iron, that contains few nickle and is known as pamor parambanan. It is kept in the kraton of Soerakarta. Every time when the Soesoehoenan or other courtmembers want to forge a weapon, often a much too large piece of the meteor Iron was given to the empu, who had usually left a very large part of it. That's why that it was possible to buy pieces of the pamor parambanan for the very high price of fl 2,50 to fl 10,00 for a rejal (30 gram)" That means in the currency of today the very high price of 1 euro to 4,50 euro for 30 gram. About the use and being well known of the meteoric iron you misunderstood me. Using meteoric iron outside Indonesia for pamorforging is not well known. Jens wrote that in India two swords, a dagger and a knife was made from the iron of a meteor. What I ment to say is that the use of the parambanan meteor for pamor weapons is well known (at least here in Holland) and that "a weapon made from the meteor was considered as the true holy weapon with pamor parambanan or pamor toenggal" (I quoted the book) Pamor forging was also done with other metals. The same book mention "the import of nickle bars, the pure Krupp nickle from the factory of A. Krupp from Berndorf, Germany. When this was used the pamordrawing came up very clear and shiny. Much more then when the real pamor iron of Parambanan was used."