Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - How many Kris's are made of Indian steel?

Ki Jayamalelo · 2nd February 2008, 07:00 PM

Hello Kerislovers,

yes we have done smelting experiments with iron sand from Cilacap. It was done with help of Empu Subandi and his crew and Pande Mudra in Bali. We startet already 1996 and also in Bali with local ironsand from Tabanan and the last time with Mas Boedhi (Hello Mas Boedhi !!!). We used electric blower then the tradional bellows. There was almost no difference in the result. The range of iron or better I should say pamor was between 5 and 10 %. Altogether it was about 16 kg of iron sponge. What turns out was not only iron but laminated pamor veins with more or less silvery shine. In my opinion it looks close to Majapahit kerisses.

My last smelting project was iron ore of the pitmine in Soroako. PT INCO has given me 200 kg of ore which i took it to Tanah Toraja. The result was 1,6 kg of pamor.

Then we have made several kerisses including meteoric iron, 100 % Nickel, 10 % Nickel, pamor from our own smelt of Cilacap, Bali and last from Soroako.

Exept with blades of 100 % Nickel there was not much difference in the color of the pamor lines.

I think some day we will have evidences for local iron smelting in Java but as I kow there was no resaerch about this part of th history of technik.

There are hints of smetling in Westjava and near Candi Belahan. This was told to me by an archaelogist of the National Museum. The early javanese with a culture building Candis like Borobudur and Prambanan had a big need for steel chisels. As we also know there was never a pure bronze age but bronze was always mixed with iron and the immigrants of Java brought the knowledge of iron with them.

We should not forget the ironsand deposits in Java are millions of tons almost the whole southcoast. For sure there was imported iron but we also should not forget Tom Harrsons excavation in Kuching with 40000 tons of ironslag and the excavation in the vicinity of the lake Matano in Luwu. You may read more in David Bulbecks book The Land of Iron (an Internet edition is available). For import of iron the martime archaelogy showing more and more wrecks with loads of iron. www.maritimeasia.ws/topic/iron.html

Wootz and Java goes to far for me, because we could not say because of crucibles with remaining iron slag are used to make wootz steel. So far I remember in the Geological Museum in Bandung is also a small crucible with Iron slag. I have tried to smelt wootz too in Solo but unfortunatly the wootzcake ? has been lost, but the surface structure remembered on wootz. The transver of knowledge from India is possible but I think, or let me say the special treatment of wootz is not so easy. I preparing another trip to Indonesia but if still time I will post some pictures.

Dietrich Drescher
Ki Jayamalelo

2nd February 2008, 07:00 PM	#11
Ki Jayamalelo Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Germany Posts: 18	Hello Kerislovers, yes we have done smelting experiments with iron sand from Cilacap. It was done with help of Empu Subandi and his crew and Pande Mudra in Bali. We startet already 1996 and also in Bali with local ironsand from Tabanan and the last time with Mas Boedhi (Hello Mas Boedhi !!!). We used electric blower then the tradional bellows. There was almost no difference in the result. The range of iron or better I should say pamor was between 5 and 10 %. Altogether it was about 16 kg of iron sponge. What turns out was not only iron but laminated pamor veins with more or less silvery shine. In my opinion it looks close to Majapahit kerisses. My last smelting project was iron ore of the pitmine in Soroako. PT INCO has given me 200 kg of ore which i took it to Tanah Toraja. The result was 1,6 kg of pamor. Then we have made several kerisses including meteoric iron, 100 % Nickel, 10 % Nickel, pamor from our own smelt of Cilacap, Bali and last from Soroako. Exept with blades of 100 % Nickel there was not much difference in the color of the pamor lines. I think some day we will have evidences for local iron smelting in Java but as I kow there was no resaerch about this part of th history of technik. There are hints of smetling in Westjava and near Candi Belahan. This was told to me by an archaelogist of the National Museum. The early javanese with a culture building Candis like Borobudur and Prambanan had a big need for steel chisels. As we also know there was never a pure bronze age but bronze was always mixed with iron and the immigrants of Java brought the knowledge of iron with them. We should not forget the ironsand deposits in Java are millions of tons almost the whole southcoast. For sure there was imported iron but we also should not forget Tom Harrsons excavation in Kuching with 40000 tons of ironslag and the excavation in the vicinity of the lake Matano in Luwu. You may read more in David Bulbecks book The Land of Iron (an Internet edition is available). For import of iron the martime archaelogy showing more and more wrecks with loads of iron. www.maritimeasia.ws/topic/iron.html Wootz and Java goes to far for me, because we could not say because of crucibles with remaining iron slag are used to make wootz steel. So far I remember in the Geological Museum in Bandung is also a small crucible with Iron slag. I have tried to smelt wootz too in Solo but unfortunatly the wootzcake ? has been lost, but the surface structure remembered on wootz. The transver of knowledge from India is possible but I think, or let me say the special treatment of wootz is not so easy. I preparing another trip to Indonesia but if still time I will post some pictures. Dietrich Drescher Ki Jayamalelo Last edited by Ki Jayamalelo; 2nd February 2008 at 07:30 PM.