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Cobalt,

Oh yeah, I believe it was Darrel that tried to snaggle your octagonal treasure. Can't blame him. That Swedish steel has some reputation. The old Swedish Mauser rifles are legendary for the quality of their metallurgy,so much so that even though they were not the "improved"98 action type,the steel was so good and the workmanship so fine,they are still coveted to this day.
When u get the urge someday to build an open forge like Nara in Nepal, pound the sucker into a broad sword,or hey a panoply of khukuris. Now if I can find a metallic based meteorite and incorporate that into a forged blade like Bill Moran, now were really cookin. He called it the knife of two worlds. Talk about romantic.

Stay safe and all the best, Phil <---<
 
Phil, Who knows what will happen with that bar. I'm in no hurry to use it.

Bill, yah, those kamis could make actuall WWII khukuri's with it and the carbon dating would be acurate.
 
Hi Cobalt:

I hadn't thought of that but you are right. Could pass the "scientific" scrutiny test for authenticity...

Bill
 
Sorry guys, but doesn't carbon dating apply only to once living things losing carbon14 after death? Course if Bill were to snag a piece or two of that desert bristlecone that the forest service cut down and killed back in the 60's, only to find out it *had* been the oldest living thing on the face of the earth (well, there's a few other bristlecones that are still living that might be as old). But that's an idea for you Bill, find some *already dead* bristlecone branches or trunk, cut it crossgrain so you can count the rings in it and have Kami Sherpa handle a limited run of the "khukuris of 5,000 years" or whatever, with certification of proof it was handled with wood from a tree alive in 3000 BC.

------------------
Russ S
 
Radiocarbon dating of steel would be quite tricky technically. It would depend on being able to extract a useful carbon sample. Then you would only get the time since the animal or plant that the carbon came from stopped interchanging carbon with the atmosphere. Since C-14 has a 5700 year half-life, I’m afraid the error bars on the results would mask any small time differences like the time between now and 1930.

On the other hand, steel smelted since WWII has detectable quantities of fallout (from atmospheric nuclear explosions) in it. You can verify the authenticity of Cobalt’s bar that way.


[This message has been edited by Howard Wallace (edited 14 March 1999).]
 
Well, now that you mention it, the bar does glow in the dark, hehe.
 
Khukuri that glows in the dark with certified 5,000 year old handle -- available only from Himalayan Imports.

Bill
 
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