A keris for comment

A. G. Maisey · 14th September 2022, 04:28 AM

Yes Rick, it works like this, let's say you start with 2 pieces of iron & one piece of nickel, so you put the nickel in between the 2 bits of iron & then you take the weld, OK, then bend that iron + nickel sandwich in two, weld again = 2 layers of nickel, & again = 4 layers, & again = 8 layers, & again =16, again = 32, again = 64, again = 128 layers of nickel.

Forge out that billet with 128 layers, cut it in half, make a sandwich of two pieces of pamor & steel in between, take the weld, then forge to approximate shape and carve inyo a keris.

However --- every time you heat up the material and forge or weld, you lose material through flaking, so these layers are imaginary, thus they are nominal layers, as if you had lost nothing, but the bottom line is that you start with one layer (or whatever), and the more you forge & weld, the thinner that layer (or layers) gets.

Ngulit (or kulit) semangka (or semongko) is the same pamor as wos (or beras) wutah, the only difference is the number & width of the bands of contrasting material.

14th September 2022, 04:28 AM	#12
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,992	Yes Rick, it works like this, let's say you start with 2 pieces of iron & one piece of nickel, so you put the nickel in between the 2 bits of iron & then you take the weld, OK, then bend that iron + nickel sandwich in two, weld again = 2 layers of nickel, & again = 4 layers, & again = 8 layers, & again =16, again = 32, again = 64, again = 128 layers of nickel. Forge out that billet with 128 layers, cut it in half, make a sandwich of two pieces of pamor & steel in between, take the weld, then forge to approximate shape and carve inyo a keris. However --- every time you heat up the material and forge or weld, you lose material through flaking, so these layers are imaginary, thus they are nominal layers, as if you had lost nothing, but the bottom line is that you start with one layer (or whatever), and the more you forge & weld, the thinner that layer (or layers) gets. Ngulit (or kulit) semangka (or semongko) is the same pamor as wos (or beras) wutah, the only difference is the number & width of the bands of contrasting material.