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worked meteorite knives from Java


    While wandering down the hall I ran into Dr. Dick Stein, who teaches 
chemistry here, and talked briefly with him about my research.  
    I was surprised to find out that he is an expert on Japanese swords, 
and even more surprised when he told me that on Java they had used solid 
iron meteorites to make a short dagger called keris, of which he told me 
there were about a thousand examples.
    When I told him that this would significantly increase the number of 
known meteorites, he told me that many of the keris had come from one 
large iron about the size of a very small car which was housed in a 
temple.
    Does anyone know about this?
    As for the keris, it appears that while the Javanese(?) stopped 
making them from whole meteorites, they make them from what they call
"tosan aji", or "magic metal", which they make by alloying in 
nickle-iron and stony-iron meteorites.  You can see a picture of this 
with 2 meteorites at:
     http://www.indomedia.com/tosanaji/seni.htm 
    
                                             Best wishes - 
                                                 Ed

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