Seven village metal?

[Pusaka]

I cant upload a picture of the pendok right know but it is the same colour as this panchaloha statue, not as yellow as brass but not as rich/golden as gold. It hasn’t tarnished unlike a brass pendok. There is nothing special about the construction of the pendok itself, actually very plain.

I have seen a metallurgical analysis of antique Tibetan singing bowls and it demonstrated that they were made from a complex alloy which contained also quantities of gold and silver.

My understanding is that they were (not modern ones) made from five metals (panchaloha) and westerners made up this concept of them being made of seven metals to fit their own understanding i.e. one metal for each planet.
Just consider the addition of quicksilver to represent the planet mercury and you will know it is impossible i.e. it will boil off before the other metals are even red hot filling the room with mercury vapor

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

[David]

Oxford University recently conducted a study with the company Himalayan Bowls and found that singing bowls have been made in the Himalayan region for at least 600-800 years, and are likely related to bronze bowls produced in Central and Western Asia. Extensive metallurgical analysis by Himalayan Bowls and Oxford University has discovered that the bowls are made from "high tin bronze," also known as "bell metal bronze," which is a pure mixture of copper and tin. Contrary to popular folklore, there is no evidence to support the claims that singing bowls contain "7 metals" (Joseph Feinstein, 2011).

This seems to dispute even the idea of 5-metal bowls. As for your pendok, it may indeed be suasa if it has a gold look and does not tarnish. Again, not 5 metals, but 3. I have never hear of any 5-metal mixtures being used on pendoks, but maybe someone else has more info.
The photo of the statue is fairly useless in this conversation since the true color of the mixed metals here are unknown. Color shifts dependent upon light in which it is shot and white balance used. Also colors shift from one computer screen to another. Telling us that your pendok looks like the metal in this statue does not bring us any closer to determining the materials that your pendok have been made of. It probably looks different on my screen than on yours. You would have to have it tested to know anything definite.

[A. G. Maisey]

I've got a pendok that is on an old Solo keris that is made from a metal that is the colour of copper, but it has never tarnished like copper. It is definitely not suasa, I have no idea what it is. I've had it about 45 years.

The keris that goes with this keris has some kinatah work that I thought was brass when I bought it, but it also never tarnished, and is not gold.

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

I've got a pendok that is on an old Solo keris that is made from a metal that is the colour of copper, but it has never tarnished like copper. It is definitely not suasa, I have no idea what it is. I've had it about 45 years.

The keris that goes with this keris has some kinatah work that I thought was brass when I bought it, but it also never tarnished, and is not gold.

Just out of curiousity, why are you so sure it's not suasa?

[A. G. Maisey]

Suasa is just low content rose gold, anything gold is easy to test, this stuff was tested years ago.

[David]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Suasa is just low content rose gold, anything gold is easy to test, this stuff was tested years ago.

OK, I see, it's non-tarnishing, but there is no gold content....

[A. G. Maisey]

The pendok looks like copper, but has never tarnished like copper; it has not maintained a bright, polished finish, but the build up of tarnish that we commonly find on copper that has never been polished over an extended period of time is missing.

The kinatah on the blade has a brassy look to it, but again, no cleaning for the time I've had it, just an occasional oiling, and no tarnish. I've had keris with brass kinatah, and in my experience the kinatah has tarnished pretty quickly.

I find this puzzling, but it is fact. Don't ask me to explain it, I cannot, I'm simply reporting it.

[Pusaka]

Originally Posted by David

Oxford University recently conducted a study with the company Himalayan Bowls and found that singing bowls have been made in the Himalayan region for at least 600-800 years, and are likely related to bronze bowls produced in Central and Western Asia. Extensive metallurgical analysis by Himalayan Bowls and Oxford University has discovered that the bowls are made from "high tin bronze," also known as "bell metal bronze," which is a pure mixture of copper and tin. Contrary to popular folklore, there is no evidence to support the claims that singing bowls contain "7 metals" (Joseph Feinstein, 2011).

This seems to dispute even the idea of 5-metal bowls. As for your pendok, it may indeed be suasa if it has a gold look and does not tarnish. Again, not 5 metals, but 3. I have never hear of any 5-metal mixtures being used on pendoks, but maybe someone else has more info.
The photo of the statue is fairly useless in this conversation since the true color of the mixed metals here are unknown. Color shifts dependent upon light in which it is shot and white balance used. Also colors shift from one computer screen to another. Telling us that your pendok looks like the metal in this statue does not bring us any closer to determining the materials that your pendok have been made of. It probably looks different on my screen than on yours. You would have to have it tested to know
anything definite.

David the analysis I seen was done by the British Museum in London and the analysis was of old antique Tibetan bowls.
All of the modern bowls are just made of bronze despite what the seller says. The people in the village where they make the majority of modern bowls are very poor, they don’t have piles of gold and silver lying around from which to make bowls.
Basically either the people who sell them are deceived into thinking they are made of seven metals or they know they are not but sell them as such despite this.


A metallurgical analysis, done by the British Museum in London, reveals that the instruments are made of a 12-metal alloy consisting of silver, nickel, copper, zinc, antimony, tin, lead, cobalt, bismuth, arsenic, cadmium and iron. Now a lost art, it appears that this quality of bell bowl cannot be reproduced today.