Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

A. G. Maisey · 9th November 2011, 06:32 PM

Gangsa is bronze.

In Central Jawa good quality gamelan instruments are made of bronze, and have traditionally been made of bronze.

The pendok that I mentioned is not made of the bronze that is usually found in Central Jawa, but it could be a bronze, because the composition of bronze is highly variable. New bronze made today is typically about 10% tin and 90% copper, but over the course of history, the metals used to make bronze have varied a lot, I seem to recall reading somewhere that one of the bronzes used in England in early times was made of 8 different metals, what I can remember of this mix is copper, tin, zinc, lead, arsenic.

If the colour of Pusaka's pendok is correct, it is very probably mamas.

There were pendok made of gangsa, or bronze, but I cannot recall ever having handled one.

9th November 2011, 06:32 PM	#15
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6,991	Gangsa is bronze. In Central Jawa good quality gamelan instruments are made of bronze, and have traditionally been made of bronze. The pendok that I mentioned is not made of the bronze that is usually found in Central Jawa, but it could be a bronze, because the composition of bronze is highly variable. New bronze made today is typically about 10% tin and 90% copper, but over the course of history, the metals used to make bronze have varied a lot, I seem to recall reading somewhere that one of the bronzes used in England in early times was made of 8 different metals, what I can remember of this mix is copper, tin, zinc, lead, arsenic. If the colour of Pusaka's pendok is correct, it is very probably mamas. There were pendok made of gangsa, or bronze, but I cannot recall ever having handled one. Last edited by A. G. Maisey; 9th November 2011 at 06:43 PM.