Why Is It

[A. G. Maisey]

The easy answer is, I reckon, "style".

Somewhere along the line they decided that the correct gonjo for a keris was plain black, no pamor.

However, if we then ask why this style developed, we can perhaps come up with a couple of ideas.

There is the concept that it is a desirable thing to hide the pamor of a blade for reasons of personal protection against misuse. A black gonjo does this nicely.

Then there is the manufacturing problem.

The traditional forge that is used by smiths in Jawa and Bali is just a shallow depression in the ground, with the blast being provided by two rather narrow bambu tubes connected to ububan---upright cylinders with plungers that look like big feather dusters. The plungers are moved up and down, and the blast of air goes through the bambu into the fire. The fire is usually quite shallow by western standards, which means that it is difficult to avoid welding in an oxidising atmosphere, something that is not at all desireable.In fact, it is not easy to coax a welding heat from a fire like this---I've tried, and under the same conditions that old time smiths in Jawa and Bali worked under, I cannot weld.

Old time smiths often used rocks as both heavy hammer and anvil, all the family would be involved in the work, and the strikers were often women.
Taking account of the technical limitations with equipment, it is sometimes a wonder to me that the old time smiths in this part of the world could produce anything at all.

But they did.

However, to produce a forging of pamor material, sufficient to allow a gonjo to be cut from the end of it, before, or even after, the core was inserted, would have been committing to more work than was really necessary, and the necessary work was already stretching the limits of the technology.

To make a separate forging from pamor material for the gonjo would involve more work than to use plain iron.

Think about it:- what is the practical purpose of pamor in a blade?

It is to extend the quantity of inferior material and to provide protection for the steel core or edge ( dependent on method of construction).

The gonjo does not need to be hard, and never is, even where it may be made of hardenable material.

Why waste resources and add to cost, when this is totally unnecessary?

In modern terms, these old time smiths had their accountants do a cost-benefit analysis, and they were advised that the additional price that they could charge the customer for a pamor gonjo did not support the additional cost of its production.