Seven village metal?

[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.

[Jean]

I think that the alloy described by Pusaka could be gongso, I saw some very nice pendoks made from this materials but don't own any in my collection. I have some old "singing" bowls and confirm that they did not tarnish at all since 20 years, I can send some pictures if you are interested.
Best regards
Jean

[Jean]

Sorry, I forgot this kris (1.4.4) which has a pendok made from gongso I think (looks like gold, very thick, does not tarnish).
And the pendok of kris 1.4.13 is made from a copper alloy which does not tarnish much as described by Alan.
Best regards
Jean

[Pusaka]

Originally Posted by Jean

I think that the alloy described by Pusaka could be gongso, I saw some very nice pendoks made from this materials but don't own any in my collection. I have some old "singing" bowls and confirm that they did not tarnish at all since 20 years, I can send some pictures if you are interested.
Best regards
Jean

Jean I think you hit the nail on the head, I did a google image search for gongso Pendok and have included the an image below. This pendok looks exactly like mine, as you can see it also has not tarnished.

What I also found very interesting is that when I did the search I found many images of gamelan instruments which suggests that musical instruments are also made of this alloy. It would be very interesting now to know what gongso is made from and if it is similar to the metal Tibetan singing bowls are made from.

http://cherykeris.blogspot.com/

EDIT:

Further searching has revealed something quite interesting, gongso metal literally means gamelan metal suggesting that it is indeed the same alloy from which some gamelan instruments are made.

[Pusaka]

This is what the master had to say to the readers of The Bali Times. I learnt Gamelan from a local guru Dewa Nyoman Sura from Pengosekan Village about 5 km from Ubud. In those days, there were no children Gamelan. I hung around the musicians and watched them play. In the 60s there were only two Gamelan groups in Ubud – one belonged to the Ubud Kaja (North) and the other Ubud Kelod (South). Gamelan is the traditional music of Indonesia (specifically Bali and Java). Gamelan means the traditional ensemble of instruments. For example, in Bali Kendang (drum), Reong (kettle gong), Gong Kempur (medium gong) and Kemong (kettle gong). The materials used in the Gamelan are metal and wood. Prior to the use of metal we had bamboo Gamelan as seen in the Gambang Ensemble. The metal used for instruments is made of the Panca Datu – 5 elements of tin, copper, iron, silver and gold.
http://marculyseas.wordpress.com/cat...amelan-master/

[A. G. Maisey]

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.

[rasjid]

Since last year, in jawa tengah we have a lot of pendok gongso for sale. Most of them is jogja style with silver plate in the middle. The price is quite dear due to gold content (very little) and hard to make, unlike silver easier to work on.

Some people selling Bronze pendok (dirty - and called it gongso). If broze; when cleaned we can see the bronze color but with gongso - you still can see the gold color like Suasa (but the one with very low gold content). As you may know suasa also have different colour depending their gold content.
Just my one cents opinion..

Rasjid

[Pusaka]

Originally Posted by A. G. Maisey

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.

A. G. Maisey,did they have a specific name for that bronze made of 8metals or did they just call it bronze?

I had also read that gamelan instruments are just made from bronze however I also know that people also consider the gamelan instruments in the royal courts to have a superior sound.

Master Tjokorda Raka Swastika is of the Ubud Royal family so when he said that the gamelan instruments were made from Panca Datu perhaps he was specifically talking about the instruments in the possession of the royal courts or perhaps this is unique to Bali?