My thoughts, to the extend of my limited knowledge:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey
Mamas is sort of like nickel silver, or german silver, there is a Chinese type of white metal that I think might in fact be mamas, but I've forgotten the Chinese name, its something like "pakun" or similar I think.
I believe it's referred to as 'Pak Kam' (Cantonese) or 'Pek Kim' (Hokkien); both means 'White Gold'. However, I do not know the composition of this alloy.
I've maybe seen that type of little slit before, sometimes vertical, sometimes horizontal, and once or twice with a gold infill. I've been told that the gold serves the purpose cooling the wilah and of preventing any possible adverse effects flowing from the wilah back to the user. In fact, I've seen gold bars and dots in the base of a wilah, and in various places in a gonjo.
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Could this also refer to 'pasak', the insertion of a valuable metal e.g. gold/suasa/silver/alloy or even iron/steel/pamor material into the gonjo recess, as seen in some old Semenanjung keris? 'Apparently' the use of gold inserts on the keris is to 'counter' the 'invincibility' of the opponent. No personal experience of this though.....