keris and spirit

[Boedhi Adhitya]

Originally Posted by Raden Usman Djogja

in late 1990s, local newspaper reported there was small meteorite fallen down in Temanggung county, Central Java. Soon after that, I aimed to go there. Unfortunely, my acquintance informed that there was no meteorite anymore. The biggest one was occupied by the local government. The smaller debris were for "first come first get"..

Even if you got it, Mas Usman, you cannot forge a keris from the Temanggung meteorite, since it was a stony-type meteorite. If I don't mistaken, only 10% of the fall are iron-type meteorite. The best meteorite for pamor material should contains around 10% nickel.

As David mentioned, no reliable evidence nor record that keris' pamor was made from meteorite before the fall of Prambanan Meteorite. Some old books describe many kind of iron, with it's characteristic and it's origin which sometimes refers to region like Kamboja (Campuchea) or Sailan (Ceylon) or mythological origin, but none could be interpreted as originated 'from the sky'. If the meteorite is very powerful, then the most powerful blade should be the old Eskimos/Inuit knives, as it was made from 100% meteorite iron. (before the remaining meteorite was 'stolen', of course).

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclo...meteorite.html
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/perm...t/capeyork.php

The most common/familiar scientific study on keris/pamor materials for Indonesian keris lovers is the work of Haryono Arumbinang. If his non-destructive chemical analysis valid, we (and he also) conclude that the old blades (if his dating method, which rely on Tangguh, reliable) always contain iron (Fe) and Titanium (Ti) and no Nickel (Ni) content. On the contrary, the nem-neman blades always contain Ni and no Ti. As the iron meteorite should contains some Ni, then we could conclude from Arumbinang's work (despite of Arumbinang's conclusion), no old blade was made/mixed with iron from meteorite. And those which contains Ni is not necessarily made from meteorite iron neither.


For nickel contents in iron meteorites :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_meteorite

[David]

Thanks Boedhi, interesting links.
Here is just one of the many discussions we have had in the past on these forums about the subject of meteorite in keris pamor. I would recommend everyone interested give it a good read (or re-read ) and also search and read all the other numerous threads on the subject so that hopefully we can bring some new information to the table.
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...eris+meteorite