Jungayyan Ivory Sulu Twistcore kris with gold and silver wire inlay

[katana]

Hi Bill,
the magnified images are really interesting There seems to be crystaline 'structures' (ringed in photo) in the blade .... any idea what they could be


David

.

[Bill M]

Originally Posted by katana

Hi Bill,
the magnified images are really interesting There seems to be crystalline 'structures' (ringed in photo) in the blade .... any idea what they could be


David

.

David,

I will look deeper with higher magnification. and try some different angles.

Originally Posted by Norman McCormick

Hi Bill,
Many thanks for the photos, I've been experimenting with inlaying copper into steel and what I wanted to see was how the grooves were prepared for inlaying. On European weapons it would appear the groove is undercut using a special tool forming an inverted T so that when the inlay is forced into the space it expands into the T thereby forming an anchor for the metal inlay. From what I can see this is not the case in this blade and internal 'roughness' of the groove is sufficient to grip the inlay if it is laid in with enough force. This is how I have done it and it seems to work very well. Is there any evidence of an adhesive in the groove? I was thinking of possibly a similar substance to that used in India for Tulwar hilts. I also wanted to see how smooth the edges of the grooves were as this is a difficult thing to achieve with hand tools although only really apparent upon close inspection and not terribly noticeable at normal viewing distances. Thanks again for the pictures and would you mind if I copied them into my photo file for future reference?
Regards,
Norman.

Norman, you are perfectly welcome to use the images anyt way you like!

I want to try some more images at different angles and using fiberoptic ringlight as well as the dual goosenecks. I don't think there is an inverted "T." It looks like it is mainly just a groove with the metal pounded in as you suggested.

Bill