Sumatran pedang for comment.

[kai]

Hullo AM,

Thanks for your response!

The view on pamor depends on what school one follows and also on how much of a purist one is. Generally, for the Soenda who were focused on spirituality, the end pamor was incidental, a gift from the gods and accepted as such.

Yup, I reckon that's the usual approach from a client's perspective.

Also, remember that the Soenda came under Mataram in the 17thC.

Seems the same influence can be seen in southern Sumatra, too...

To me, a non-random pamor tends to point more towards a post-16thC period.

Do you possibly have any Sunda examples with complex pamor from these earlier periods including Majapahit that you could kindly share? These seem to be very rare, indeed!

The quality of the blades also seems to have suffered somewhat as it approached modern times.

This seems to be a general trend throughout the archipelago (certainly with exceptions and different time-frames). Is it possible to delimit any corresponding periods for western Java?

BTW, any chance that the relatively early availability of European steel contributed to this? Any indications that there developed a split between "tool" blades from monosteel and more traditionally forged pusaka blades?

Regards,
Kai