curious: meteoric iron

Gehazi

Gehazi

Joined
Jun 30, 2013
Messages
3,994
has anyone here ever bought or been given a meteor of iron/ nickel to make a blade with? is this possible? I was thinking about buying a 5-9 lb iron meteorite and having it made into something by a craftsman here, but I wanted to see how feasible this is from the craftsmen first.

is there a particular kind of meteorite I should get? or are any with nickel/iron ? is it actually useful for forging? or was this just mysticism because it fell from the sky?

any ideas and or actual facts about meteoric iron, its history in blades , and its modern usefulness beyond "i have a meteoric iron blade" --

thanks for the trouble of responding, and thanks in advance for everyone's input.
 
One of the things about meteorite iron are the "widmanstatten lines " These are great for bolsters but disappear when they are heated and forged. A small percentage of meteors have the right amounts of iron and nickel for a blade .
 
so basically meteoric iron is good for nice decoration, but bad for the blade save for in very rare cases?
 
I have been asked to use it, but the deal never went through. High nickel meteorite+highcarbon steel should be similar to a high/mild mix damascus, which is pretty nice especially as a weapon steel. The purity of the meteoritic iron is the most important thing, I would think-and the hardest to discern.
It also might be prudent to do the forge welding with a LOT of ventilation, not knowing what else is in said meteor. Wouldn't want to become an inadvertent superhero
(it's a bird! It's a plane! It's deeaadd-mannnnn)
 
I forged a dagger blade from a Fe/Ni meteorite and it came out nice looking. I used flame grain maple for the handle. It made a nice looking collectors knife, but would not be a user.
Having no carbon, it is just iron and nickel. It gets work hardened a bit, and will get sharp, but has no hardness or edge retention in the way steel does.

I worked it very hot ( like wrought iron) and fluxed on every heat in the beginning. Of course, there were no Widmanstatten lines after it was forged, but what I got was some neat looking "fold" lines caused by the wrinkles being compressed and fused when I forged it into a bar. It looked like hada.
 
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I thought I had some, but they must be on the computer at work. I'll look Monday.
 
I've only read the title and first post so far but this video came right to my mind so I thought I'd share it :thumbup:

[video=youtube;DAbIf3Li1go]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAbIf3Li1go[/video]

-Paul
My Channel Lsubslimed
 
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