OLD BARUNG 1

[kai]

Hello Ian,

I think what you are calling blotches may be deliberate inclusions that are forged into the steel.

Exactly. Only that these often polygonal inclusions with pretty crisp margins present quite an enigma how such an effect got achieved by the bladesmith.

The OP of this thread has a blade that is very "dirty" and hard to read. I'm not entirely convinced that these "blotches" are actually in the blade rather than an artifact on the surface.

Apparently it exhibits a combination of both kind of features.

I can't see how they would alter the performance of the weapon much.

No, they won't. I've never seen these blotches to extend into the hardened edge.

Also both sides differ from each other. Thus, the blade sems to be a sandwich construction rather than exhibiting any inserted edge.

AFAIK, such a kind of mosaic pamor is not found in antique blades from anywhere throughout Indonesia.

Regards,
Kai

[Battara]

Kai has a point (every pun intended ).

We have seen some examples where an old blade or metal with perhaps special value or talismanic value gets reused into making a new blade. Not easy but some do this still today with different metals to make similar patterns on knife blades today.