[A. G. Maisey]

I have not heard this, but that means nothing, beliefs change from place to place, person to person. If it is possible draw a relationship between the Trimurti and the elements of the blade, why not accept it?

When we draw Balinese relationships we need to use the Balinese Mandala as our point of reference. One of the elements in the Mandala is colour.

I'm coming at this question not having heard that blade elements can be related to the Trimurti, so my first thought is colour:- Siwa : mixed colours, Brahma : red, Wisnu : black; but then we have Iswara, who is not a part of the Trimurti. Mixed colours would seemingly indicate pamor, not just the nickel component of pamor.

Iswara is an idea that can have various applications depending upon the school of Hindu belief, the situation, and many other things. In Bali-Hindu Iswara is usually interpreted as the idea that can become a deity who is above the Trimurti, but Iswara can also be understood as Siwa.

The colour of Iswara is white, so if Pande Ketut Mudra aligned nickel, which is white, with Siwa, well, that tells you how he was thinking at that time.

But what about Brahma, who has red, and Wisnu, who has black? You can often see the colours of the trimurti in the stones/pastes/glass/plastic used in Balinese hilts.

Black is obvious enough in a keris blade, but red? Maybe a little patch of rust, or the red that accumulates under an old warangan job?

We need to understand that everything in Bali comes in threes. Once we realise this we can usually line up some sort of explanation to then align the three with the Trimurti, and why not? The Trimurti are only aspects of the Ultimate Oneness, and that Ultimate Oneness is everywhere and in all things.

The Ultimate Unity is Acintya = Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa. But it makes things easier to understand for the common people if that Oneness that is impossible to hold in the mind can be split into its elements, this is the thought behind the multitude of representative deities in Hindu belief.

I probably should mention that this idea of "one God" is relatively recent in Bali. It is an element of some Hindu philosophical thought that goes back a very long way, but in Bali the idea seems to have gained popularity only after the new state of Indonesia decided that everybody had religious freedom, provided that they identified their religion as being one of the official approved state religions and that there was belief in One God.