Keris malela in Bujangga Manik

A. G. Maisey · 6th March 2023, 04:27 AM

No way to judge quality when new of the items I used to send to Jerzy, as I said, it was all junk: old, eroded, formless.

But the thing to note is this:- there was no local material, I used to believe that there was local iron that had been smelted from beach sands in South Jawa & Bali, and possibly other places, my belief was generated by inaccurate information that was floating around 20 or 30 or more years back, probably misguided local pride.

We now know that there is no evidence of locally smelted iron anywhere in Jawa/ Bali.

All the ferric material came in from somewhere else, mostly China, as both raw (ingots) of iron and as tools. There is more than enough evidence of this. But even so, it is reasonable to assume that all material imported was not of equal quality, thus the variations in pamor sanak.

6th March 2023, 04:27 AM	#8
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,992	No way to judge quality when new of the items I used to send to Jerzy, as I said, it was all junk: old, eroded, formless. But the thing to note is this:- there was no local material, I used to believe that there was local iron that had been smelted from beach sands in South Jawa & Bali, and possibly other places, my belief was generated by inaccurate information that was floating around 20 or 30 or more years back, probably misguided local pride. We now know that there is no evidence of locally smelted iron anywhere in Jawa/ Bali. All the ferric material came in from somewhere else, mostly China, as both raw (ingots) of iron and as tools. There is more than enough evidence of this. But even so, it is reasonable to assume that all material imported was not of equal quality, thus the variations in pamor sanak. Last edited by A. G. Maisey; 6th March 2023 at 11:41 AM.