On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 05:20:31 GMT, in rec.crafts.jewelry "Josiah Cod"
wrote:

he claims has a coating of
mekhapat over bronze : if that is true, then it was
definitely cast which means it is definitely meltable and pourable. This
material though looks porous and smells of sulfur; the
mekhapat I have seen is almost always semi-gloss (artifact of polishing)
appears non-porous and has no distinct odor.

Bill,

more and more this is sounding to me like at least a variant, of, if not
exactly, Niello. Niello is normally a mix of copper, silver, and
perhaps lead, which are melted together and then mixed with an excess of
sulphur. The resulting mix of black metal sulphides is fairly low
melting, and in jewelry, is normally used much like enamel, poured into
depressions or engravings in silver or gold (or other metal) items, and
then usually scraped or filed flat and burnished or polished. the stuff
softens a bit when warmed and can be quite plastic, depending on the mix
of the metals it was made from. If not made well, it could be quite
porous and frothy, or have tiny bits of metallic metal still floating in
it, and a sulphur smell also might occur if it's not well made and
mixed. It will adhere to most metals, including steel or iron, so it
would not be hard to make a magnetic item simply by using it to coat
something made of, say, cast iron. also possible might be a mix of
niello and iron filings, used as a solid cast material. That too, might
be quite magnetic. While it's normally used as an overlay on metal,
there's no real reason it could not be cast into probably small solid
forms as well. The use of niello is quite traditional in thai jewelry,
and I can well imagine that there might be a variate formula made,
perhaps with other metals, such as maybe without the silver, that might
then have a completely different name, with other traditional uses.

what I like about this hypothesis is not just that, for me, it seems to
fit your descriptions, but that since there are numerous variations in
the formulas that can be used to make neillo or neillo-like substances,
these variations could easily account for the several variations you
cite in it's appearance and the like...

Hope thats of interest and use.

Peter Rowe