Hardening keris sombro/pejet - an indecent anecdote?

[David]

Originally Posted by jagabuwana

I am reading an excerpt from Jean Greffioz' book The Keris. Legendary Weapon from Indonesia which mentions keris sombro/pejet and the legendary Empu Ni Brok Sombro. Jean mentions:

"Another legendary speciality from empu Sombro was her very personal technique for hardening the kris blades, but the decency forbids me to relate it here. An old kris Sombro is shown on picture 2C."

Well heck, now I'm intrigued! Does anyone know this technique?

Empu Sombro was a legendary female empu. It should be fairly obvious that the legend about how she quenched her blades is highly unlikely. If you factor in that she was a woman with Jean's reluctance to break his sense of decency and use a bit of imagination you can probably figure out what body part she supposedly used to quench those blades.

[jagabuwana]

Well it was either going to be related to body parts or things that come out of body parts. I guess now I'm on the right track. Ah the wonderful world of mythical forging!

[Jean]

Hum, this legend is related in my previous book "The Kris, a passion from Indonesia" I think David is correct in his interpretation...
Regards

[jagabuwana]

Sorry for the misattribution, Jean. Noted.

Hm, I seem to lack imagination, or maybe not seeing as I was presented with the "what if's..." about other indecencies :P