What is Wesi Malelo?

[lemmythesmith]

Hi all, this ironsand is called satetsu in Japan and is used to smelt tamahagane (jewel metal) which is used to make Japanese swords from, its a very good iron ore, with very little sulphur or phosphorus content so makes for a real good steel, with less carbon and added meteorite it would make most excellent keris pamor, "washed" high carbon tamahagane would be ideal for the core (very hard and tough steel) Costs about £60 a kilo in Japan though.

[Greybeard]

Hi Ganjawulung, hi Lemmythesmith

Many thanks for the info/pictures which I highly appreciate. I do learn a lot here. This is a really great forum with great members!

Regards,

Heinz

[ganjawulung]

This is more picture of 'iron stones' that probably contained iron ore at Subandi's besalen in eastern Surakarta.

GANJAWULUNG (Guangzhou, June 16, 2009)

[Greybeard]

Many thanks for the picture, Ganjawulung! The stones look interesting.

Regards, Heinz

[ganjawulung]

Ok Dear Heinz,

I tried quite a couple of times to portrait the "glittering" or "sparkling" effect of the blade that you probably meant to. But I don't think I can show you the good photo of it.

These two blades -- one (supposed to be) Pajajaran or Cirebon trisula, and one keris of dhapur "gumbeng" (quite similar to "kebo lajer" but not to thick) -- also supposed to be a Pajajaran gumbeng, with "sparkling" or "crystaline" grains in the blade...

GANJAWULUNG

[Greybeard]

Dear Ganjawulung

Thank you very much for taking the time and making the effort to portray wesi malelo. It`s difficult to describe the "glittering/sparkling" effect by word and it`s not easy to illustrate this by photos as well. One must have seen it on the object in hand! But the pictures you posted are very informative to me, and they are much appreciated!

Wesi malelo is a fascinating but rather confusing matter, and much of the knowledge of it seems to be lost in the past ...

You show a Pajajaran or Cirebon trisula. That`s interesting as my keris in question is attributed to Cirebon. What`s the period of tangguh Cirebon (16th century?).

Best regards,

Heinz

[ganjawulung]

Originally Posted by Greybeard

...You show a Pajajaran or Cirebon trisula. That`s interesting as my keris in question is attributed to Cirebon. What`s the period of tangguh Cirebon (16th century?).

Dear Heinz,
Cirebon era was 15th century to 16th century. The first keraton was named as Pakungwati Nagara -- built by Rakean Walang Sungsang son of Pajajaran King, Siliwangi in 1452.

It was then the first Islamic kingdom in Java (Walang Sungsang then became Pangeran Cakrabuana, the first king of Pakungwati Cirebon), and it had good relation with Demak Sultanate -- then Islamic kingdom too. Cirebon and Demak had fought openly with the fading Majapahit kingdom in 1489. Trowulan, the capital of Majapahit was occupied by this coalition of powers.

In the meantime, Cirebon also fought with their parent's kingdom of Pajajaran. To strengthen the power, Pajajaran kingdom cooperated with foreign power, Purtuguese which harboured in Malacca. Hindhu Pajajaran kingdom then made a coalition treaty with Portuguese in 1522 (Batutulis Treaty, 1522) to fight the growing Islamic kingdoms in the north-coastal area of Jawa... But Pajajaran was vanished by the Islamic powers from the coastal kingdom in Jawa.

GANJAWULUNG