This subject was raised in another thread and I got some interesting information from my Javanese friend from Yogyakarta who trades this materials and I would like to share it with you in order to stimulate the discussion:
According to him, there are 2 types of fossil elephant/mamoouth molar, namely the hard one and the soft one, and only the soft type can be used for making kris hilts or warangkas. One possible interpretation (uncontrolled opinion only) could be that the hard fossil type is older than the soft one due to mineralization?
Also according to him the materials comes from Sumatra (from fossil or more recently dead elephants?) and since recently also from Russia (Siberia) where a lot of frozen mamooths can be found (not fossil ones since they were perfectly preserved under the ice or frozen ground). The Russian molar materials is worked in Bali especially.
I attach a picture of the raw material, which has a yellowish colour with white and darker stripes, and a sample of a finished Javanese hilt & warangka. In order to enhance the colour contrast, some traders dye the pieces by dipping it into a potassium permanganate solution which has a purple colour. Upon contact with air, the unstable permanganate compound is chemically reduced to manganese oxide which has a brown colour and is stable. I attach a picture of such a dyed piece, so the difference in colour between some pieces would not be due to their age as I wrongly said earlier but to a dying treatment.
I personally wonder whether these pieces are actually fossil ones or not, or may be both?
Best regards
Jean
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