What is Wesi Malelo?

[Greybeard]

Hi all,

I just bought an old keris that shows much Wesi Malelo. What exactly is Wesi Malelo and how is it created?

As I can see some "sparkling" effect on the blade, I guess it might have something to do with the crystalline structure of the iron used for this keris.

Thanks and regards,

Heinz

[A. G. Maisey]

Wesi (or besi) malela (or malelo) simply means black iron. It is a traditional way of describing it.Harsinuksmo lists several different types of wesi malela, but his descriptions I find a little confusing. He mentions that he took these descriptions from old texts and notes that these texts are difficult to understand.

I do not understand what you mean by "sparkling".

Do you mean the seemingly amorphous , crystaline effect that appears to have little pale spots inside the iron, or do you mean something else?

Is the texture of this iron open and porous, or is it padat, ie, tight grained and compacted with a smooth surface?

[Greybeard]

Hello Alan

Thank you for your response.

I admit that "sparkling" is not the right word for what I want to say (my native language is German), but your description hits the spot!

The texture of the iron appears porous/open rather than compact/smooth. The color is greyish. I do know that photos would be helpful here; unfortunately I still cannot post pictures ...

Is Wesi Malelo a feature of old or very old keris, or can it be found on recent and new blades, too?

Regards, Heinz

[Rick]

Malela can be found in newer keris also Heinz .

[ferrylaki]

Originally Posted by Greybeard

Hi all,

I just bought an old keris that shows much Wesi Malelo. What exactly is Wesi Malelo and how is it created?

As I can see some "sparkling" effect on the blade, I guess it might have something to do with the crystalline structure of the iron used for this keris.

Thanks and regards,

Heinz

do you mean sparkling like this one in this sword? or a sparkling one like in this keris?

[Greybeard]

Hello Rick, thank you for the picture. Very beautiful keris; I like it a lot!

Hello Ferrilaki, the "sparkling" (somehow I feel that`s not the right word to describe it ...) in the sword comes quite close to the one in my keris. Pity I (still) cannot post pictures ... Thanks for yours!

Regards,

Heinz

[ferrylaki]

Originally Posted by Greybeard

Hello Rick, thank you for the picture. Very beautiful keris; I like it a lot!

Hello Ferrilaki, the "sparkling" (somehow I feel that`s not the right word to describe it ...) in the sword comes quite close to the one in my keris. Pity I (still) cannot post pictures ... Thanks for yours!

Regards,

Heinz

its a pleasure to help. your welcome

[Amuk Murugul]

Originally Posted by ferrylaki

do you mean sparkling like this one in this sword? or a sparkling one like in this keris?

Hullo everybody,

The 'sparkling' effect may be due to etching, revealing either impurities or martensite formed during the forging heating/cooling process. Perhaps someone with a knowledge in metallurgy may care to elucidate.

Best,

[Greybeard]

Perhaps I should have asked this question at the beginning: Is wesi malelo a pamor material, forged to a steel core, or does the entire blade consist of wesi malelo?

Heinz

[Amuk Murugul]

Originally Posted by Greybeard

Perhaps I should have asked this question at the beginning: Is wesi malelo a pamor material, forged to a steel core, or does the entire blade consist of wesi malelo?

Heinz

Hullo Heinz,

To me 'malela' merely means 'black steel', as opposed to 'tjoendiga' ('white steel')

Best,

[Rick]

Such as this ?

[A. G. Maisey]

I'm not going to comment specifically on the blades pictured, but if we look at the pale pamor material in the pedang we can see little white specks.

When we find a lot of these in ferric material it is very probably caused by forging at low temperatures. Prof Jerzy Piaskowski of Poland conducted a number of analyses of this type of material and this was the conclusion to which he came.

The effect can be quite impressive in a blade that has only plain steel and no contrasting pamor, it looks like little white clouds floating below the surface of the iron or steel, almost three dimensional.

[Greybeard]

Hello Amuk Murugul, Rick, Alan

Thank you all for your inputs.

In an older thread (May 2008) I read that

" ... the iron used is called `besi malela`that originates from beach sand"


and

" ... besi malela is the type of iron that had a lot of impurities ... and considered as less preferable choice in making keris".

Very interesting indeed!

Furthermore, I found a very interesting post by Empu Kumis (thread "What constitutes a `good` keris?", June 2001), describing "the melting of iron from ironsand".
" ... These black sands are used in history by dayaks for traditional ironmaking also. The name of this sand is in Bali bias malalo and in Java pasir malelo like the besi malelo in the older literature of Java ... " " ... for using as material for kerisses its a real good iron." (Quote Empu Kumis)

Fascinating: Keris iron made from beach sand!

Heinz

[ganjawulung]

Originally Posted by Greybeard

In an older thread (May 2008) I read that

" ... the iron used is called `besi malela`that originates from beach sand"


and

" ... besi malela is the type of iron that had a lot of impurities ... and considered as less preferable choice in making keris".

Very interesting indeed!

Furthermore, I found a very interesting post by Empu Kumis (thread "What constitutes a `good` keris?", June 2001), describing "the melting of iron from ironsand".
" ... These black sands are used in history by dayaks for traditional ironmaking also. The name of this sand is in Bali bias malalo and in Java pasir malelo like the besi malelo in the older literature of Java ... " " ... for using as material for kerisses its a real good iron." (Quote Empu Kumis)

Fascinating: Keris iron made from beach sand!

These pictures below are experiments of our German keris man Dietrich Drescher (hopefully Empu Kumis will respond this post). I took these photos at the besalen of Subandi Supaningrat -- one of Surakartan keris maker in the eastern part of Solo, Jawa Tengah (Central Java) medio last year.

As long as I know (I hope Empu Kumis will respond it too), he had made some experiments with Pak Subandi and Boedhi Adhitya (Yogyakartan keris connoisseur) to make blocks or "iron" of Cilacap sands. Cilacap located in the southern coast of Central Jawa. Why did he choose Cilacap? I think Dietrich has a certain reason on this. He selected the Cilacap "iron sand" material with magnetic piece of iron (see picture below) and then melt the iron sand, before being forged in block forms (please correct the right English term) as you see in the picture below ...

And I remember, Dietrich had shown me a newly made "wedung" with this kind of "iron sand" pamor couple of years ago, to prove his 'thesis' on "wesi malela".... I hope this info would help you

GANJAWULUNG (Guangzhou June 15, 2009)

[lemmythesmith]

Hi all, this ironsand is called satetsu in Japan and is used to smelt tamahagane (jewel metal) which is used to make Japanese swords from, its a very good iron ore, with very little sulphur or phosphorus content so makes for a real good steel, with less carbon and added meteorite it would make most excellent keris pamor, "washed" high carbon tamahagane would be ideal for the core (very hard and tough steel) Costs about £60 a kilo in Japan though.

[Greybeard]

Hi Ganjawulung, hi Lemmythesmith

Many thanks for the info/pictures which I highly appreciate. I do learn a lot here. This is a really great forum with great members!

Regards,

Heinz

[ganjawulung]

This is more picture of 'iron stones' that probably contained iron ore at Subandi's besalen in eastern Surakarta.

GANJAWULUNG (Guangzhou, June 16, 2009)

[Greybeard]

Many thanks for the picture, Ganjawulung! The stones look interesting.

Regards, Heinz

[ganjawulung]

Ok Dear Heinz,

I tried quite a couple of times to portrait the "glittering" or "sparkling" effect of the blade that you probably meant to. But I don't think I can show you the good photo of it.

These two blades -- one (supposed to be) Pajajaran or Cirebon trisula, and one keris of dhapur "gumbeng" (quite similar to "kebo lajer" but not to thick) -- also supposed to be a Pajajaran gumbeng, with "sparkling" or "crystaline" grains in the blade...

GANJAWULUNG

[Greybeard]

Dear Ganjawulung

Thank you very much for taking the time and making the effort to portray wesi malelo. It`s difficult to describe the "glittering/sparkling" effect by word and it`s not easy to illustrate this by photos as well. One must have seen it on the object in hand! But the pictures you posted are very informative to me, and they are much appreciated!

Wesi malelo is a fascinating but rather confusing matter, and much of the knowledge of it seems to be lost in the past ...

You show a Pajajaran or Cirebon trisula. That`s interesting as my keris in question is attributed to Cirebon. What`s the period of tangguh Cirebon (16th century?).

Best regards,

Heinz

[ganjawulung]

Originally Posted by Greybeard

...You show a Pajajaran or Cirebon trisula. That`s interesting as my keris in question is attributed to Cirebon. What`s the period of tangguh Cirebon (16th century?).

Dear Heinz,
Cirebon era was 15th century to 16th century. The first keraton was named as Pakungwati Nagara -- built by Rakean Walang Sungsang son of Pajajaran King, Siliwangi in 1452.

It was then the first Islamic kingdom in Java (Walang Sungsang then became Pangeran Cakrabuana, the first king of Pakungwati Cirebon), and it had good relation with Demak Sultanate -- then Islamic kingdom too. Cirebon and Demak had fought openly with the fading Majapahit kingdom in 1489. Trowulan, the capital of Majapahit was occupied by this coalition of powers.

In the meantime, Cirebon also fought with their parent's kingdom of Pajajaran. To strengthen the power, Pajajaran kingdom cooperated with foreign power, Purtuguese which harboured in Malacca. Hindhu Pajajaran kingdom then made a coalition treaty with Portuguese in 1522 (Batutulis Treaty, 1522) to fight the growing Islamic kingdoms in the north-coastal area of Jawa... But Pajajaran was vanished by the Islamic powers from the coastal kingdom in Jawa.

GANJAWULUNG

[A. G. Maisey]

Pak Ganja, I wonder if you could clarify something for me.

You advise that Cirebon was the first Islamic kingdom in Jawa.

Can you quote your reference for this information?

Prof. Dr. Slamet Muljana seems to think that Demak was the first Islamic kingdom in Jawa,and that the Islamic Kingdom Cirebon was established with the assistance of forces from Demak. In fact, prior to reading your post, my readings of other sources all seemed to confirm this.Agreed that Cirebon did exist prior to the establishment of an Islamic Kingdom at that place, and agreed that Islam had a presence in the area of Cirebon prior to the kingdom being established. However, first sultan of Cirebon was Sunan Gunung Jati who died in 1570.

Raden Patah was responsible for the construction of the Mesjid Agung Demak, and according to the chronogram at Lawang Bledheg, that mosque already existed in 1466.

Your advice that Cirebon preceded Demak as an Islamic kingdom is quite surprising. Is this new information due to recent discoveries of which I am unaware?

Your references would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

[David]

I do not wish to derail this historical discussion on Cirebon, which i find quite interesting, but if i redirect to the original question and look back on this thread i think it is still a bit confusing as to exactly what wesi malela is. It means black iron, but iron is often black when a blade is properly stained. What differentiates wesi malela from other iron? Is it merely the ore source? Rick has shown an example of an all black iron blade with no pamor which i have often heard referred to as kelangan, but from the the othetr photos shown can i assume that a wesi malela blade can also have a nickel pamor?

[A. G. Maisey]

David, in post #2 I gave the only answer that has any relevance in a discussion where actual physical examples are not present:- besi melela is black iron.

However , if we wish to extend this explanation, an extension that will not add one iota to the understanding or identification of besi melela --- try this for size:-

in Old Javanese "malela" was a word for iron, a noun, not an adjective.

it probably derived from the word "malyala", which was a kingdom in South india, and the name of the people of that kingdom; "malyala" was also a word for iron.

in Modern Javanese "malela" means simply "black iron"

within the Javanese keris community "malela" means various types of black iron, however, as with most things to do with the keris in Jawa there is a remarkable lack of consistency in identification of exactly what characteristics apply to the specific types of besi malela

in some of the old keris texts from Jawa, texts that do not go any further back than the 19th century, so they are not really what you could call "old", the word "malela" is used as a part of the name of various types of iron, so we have from these sources:-

besi malela ruyun, besi malela gendhaga ( or kendaga), besi malela brama, besi malela cubung, besi malela gagak, besi malela kapuk, besi malela nila, besi malela senthe, besi malela toya.

it goes without saying that to get a credible concensus on exactly what these names represent in physical terms might be just a little difficult.

if you talk to five experts who supposedly have in depth knowledge of iron types, you'll get 7 or 8 answers on exactly what the specific characteristics of a specific type of besi malela are.

in this discussion group we are outside the traditional keris culture of Jawa; all we need to know, and indeed all we can possibly know in these circumstances is that besi (or wesi) malela (or melelo, melela) is a type of black iron.

It should be understood that in Javanese discussion it is considered to be refined if one can can talk for a very long time and say absolutely nothing of substance. This is how we identify a master of the language, and thus a master of the culture. This applies ten fold in keris discussion:- we say a lot, but convey very little of substance. All the multiplicity of names and words used in keris discussion have the purpose of allowing us to illustrate our erudition without actually saying anything with any depth of meaning.

Besi malela is black iron. That is more than sufficient.

[David]

Thanks Alan.

[Greybeard]

Ganjawulung and Alan, thank you very much for your participation. I learnt a lot!

Regards,

Heinz