Thank you very much for posting this paper David.
As you have remarked, it is well researched, I have many of the references in the bibliography, I have read others, some I do not know, but the approach to the writing of this paper is certainly academic. It is easy to follow, and in broad terms it gives a very good description of the Solo pendok and how it is produced.
However, it should be understood that the method of production that the writer describes is not universal, it is a method used in one family of craftsmen.
During the 1980's and 1990's I came to know an elderly m'ranggi in Jogja who was the last of his line, he produced the silver sheet used to form the pendok body by beating out a small ingot of silver that had been produced by melting the silver beads that silver comes as. The edges where the pendok was soldered were left very slightly thicker than the rest of the sheet, I forget the exact numbers of blows involved in leaving it thicker, but I do have a record of this and will advise after I have checked. Other craftsmen employ various different ways of doing things.
The "mould" that the writer mentions (sunglon/sanglon) is actually a mandrel around which the sheet is wrapped; a "kikir" is a file.
This is a really good overview of something that I doubt any collectors would know much about, you actually need to know personally, and be trusted by these craftsmen before you get to see this sort of thing. It is simply not in the public arena, it is select knowledge. It would be very easy to be pedantic and pick holes in this paper, but I absolutely will not do this, it is very good as it stands and is a valuable addition to keris literature.
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