Thoughts on this Keris

[Seerp Visser]

The past years i made a study to the use of iron meteorite by making damast steel in general and the forging of iron meteorite in the blade of a kris in particular.
I made many tests on the way i estimate the Empus used in the past and some still do today.
The results of my study are published in a booklet (approx 50 pages, Dutch language) under the name "Het ijzer van de Goden".
It will be published within a month or two in English with the name "Iron of the Gods".

What the Widtmanstatten concerns, to my opinion the Widmanstatten will disappear as soon the iron transfers into a new crystal structure, the austenitic structure, at about 730 degrees C or approx 1350 F.
But i will check that the coming weeks by making some tests.

[A. G. Maisey]

Actually, I have never seen the W pattern in any of the meteoritic material that I worked on. Everything that I used to make blades was in small pieces that were put into the fire together and amalgamated into a single piece that was then amalgamated with other single pieces and worked into a clean billet.

So I did not study it, I only used it.

But what you found Seerp, certainly makes sense to me.

In Jawa, the way in which meteoritic material is worked is by taking small pieces and enclosing in an iron envelope which is then welded together and worked clean. The resultant billet is a combination of manufactured iron and meteor, ready to use as a pamor base. My method differed from the Javanese method in that I produced a billet of pure meteoritic material and then worked that with other ferric material to make the blade, or to combine with iron to produce pamor.

[A. G. Maisey]

Here is something worth a read:-

https://www.bladesmithsforum.com/ind...eteorite-iron/