keris jalak with rare pamor

[Rick]

Here's a portion of a what I suspect is an uncontrolled pamor on a Wilah attributed to Pak Budi .
The black Iron has a couple of shades that I could not bring up with my limited image manipulation skills .

[Rick]

Presented in honor of its originator .

[Atlantia]

Wonderful, beautiful and fascinating Keris gentlemen.

[Atlantia]

Originally Posted by Rick

Presented in honor of its originator .

Hey Rick,

Whats the deal with that really BLACK stain?
I've got a Keris with a really complex pamor that has a similar very black stain.

[A. G. Maisey]

Pamor colour depends on four things:-

1)--- material

2)--- the skill of the person doing the stain

3)--- the materials available to carry out the stain job

4)--- the weather


these four factors provide the answer to every variation noted in the colour of stained blades

[satsujinken]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

Pamor colour depends on four things:-

1)--- material

2)--- the skill of the person doing the stain

3)--- the materials available to carry out the stain job

4)--- the weather


these four factors provide the answer to every variation noted in the colour of stained blades

CMIIW, as I am a newbie in this field, but as far as I know, balinese tend to stain their blade blacker than javanese keris ? my friend here named the style of staining of balinese keris as dongsalibing

the final result is the balinese keris is much darker and smoother than its javanese counterparts

I may be wrong, as I never encounter this information on any books, but from several friend of mine, who are in this field for couple of decades

look at the comparison below, keris bali first, keris jawa second

[Atlantia]

Alan, Rick, Satsujinken

Thanks gentlemen, I apprecaite the help. It's always a learning curve for me in the Keris section

[A. G. Maisey]

Donny, the reason that Balinese blades often appear to be darker than Javanese and other blades is because Balinese blades do not have a textured surface.

The factors that I have listed do cover the reasons for blade colour.

Here is a link to a blade that I made some years ago.

http://www.kerisattosanaji.com/PBXIImaisey2.html

It is a Javanese form, but a Balinese finish. If I had done a textured finish to the surface of this blade it would not appear so dark. However, some Javanese blades even with a textured surface can be pretty dark, its all about the factors that I've listed. Use the "INDEX" tab on the linked page and and you can see recent blades made by other craftsmen working in Surakarta 20 years ago:- some are very black, others are not.

One thing is true:- you cannot alter the colour of the material with which a blade is made. Most older blades are simply impossible to get really black. Really old blades often have pamor that provides contrast by use of high phosphorus and low phosphorus irons, and all you ever get there is dark grey and light grey.

Moderators:- my apologies for the linked pages, but I do not have these photos on file any longer, and I'm not going to photograph them again.

[Rick]

Originally Posted by Atlantia

Hey Rick,

Whats the deal with that really BLACK stain?
I've got a Keris with a really complex pamor that has a similar very black stain.

I think Alan covered it buddy .