Old keris Iron Vs modern keris

[Kiai Carita]

Originally Posted by marto suwignyo

But everything not really so simple like that, because some iron with impurity, but impurity not carbon also can easy to break and can difficult to weld.Because some iron have this impurity the empu must to wash the iron by weld many times until no impurity. This can know because when the iron hot enough to weld no spark come from iron when hit with hammer. This many times bend the iron and weld not only remove the impurity but also give the pattern like wos wutah to the iron. If the material that the empu fold and weld very different material the wos wutah pattern easy to see.

Great post Marto Suwignyo ... however I think you might have missed out a step in the process. Please correct me if I am wrong.

In my understanding the Mpu does the wasuh process to clean the iron by heating and beating between the hammer and anvil and folding repeatedly until (s)he has a length of clean iron -mateng wasuhan- then (s)he sticks a strip of (also preprepared) pamor material which can be made from many different metal sources including meteorite.

This strip of two metals is then welded together and repeatedly folded. This process must be done carefully as the aim is to get many layers of the two metals without actually have them weld together completely and become like an aloy. When there are enough folds the Mpu cuts the strip in two, sandwiches the steel between the layers of iron and pamor iron, cuts a tip to use later as the ganja (optional), and begins the basic shape of the keris-to-be called the kodokan -froggy- because the rough shape of the pesi to-be looks a bit like a frog's tail -perhaps?

So the wasuh process does not actually make the pamor like beras wutah. Rather it is the welding of the iron and the pamor material which makes the pamor paterns. Before these are welded and folded they must first be put through the wasuh process to obtain the best quality blade. The technique of hammering is also different then the hammering in the wasuh process.

This is what I know, please correct me if I am wrong.

Warm Salaams to all,
KC.