Metallurgy of Original 1800’s Bowie Knife Made by James Black

mete said:
I don't know about you Mr Cobalt but I made it, without even trying in freshman metallurgy !! :p :rolleyes: :rolleyes: I had a photo of it ,if I could find it , unless it was eaten by the computer Grinch. In any case it was a simple iron-carbon alloy. The interesting structure was precipitation along specific crystal planes . The professors freaked out - how did you do this ?? "
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I am very excited to see the photo, if you can find it. I have read a 1800's formula for artificial meteorite iron, but I have forgot it. Artificial meteorites have bee some kind of business. Collectors should be careful.
 
Meteorite can wait thousands of years until somebody finds it. We know more meteorite findings in America than in Europe and Near East (Figure 1).
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Figure 1. All known meteorite findings. https://data.nasa.gov/view/ak9y-cwf9

This is because in ancient times America was less populated and more meteorites survived up to present time. In Europe and Near East past generations have collected and used majority of meteorites. Meteoric iron was not important for antique Greeks and Romans, perhaps it was collected before them. I have understood that in ancient Egypt iron was known as the “metal of heaven”. So, I think majority of European and Near East meteorites were used by Egyptians and earlier cultures.

In America situation was different. In the 1800’s american pioneers found many meteorites when they started to cultivate new fields. Many of them were used by blacksmiths (Figure 2), and the rest were collected by scientists. This is a good support for the story of meteorite and Bowie knife.

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Figure 2. Here is one example how American blacksmiths used meteorites. I think it is door hinge. Picture from Fabritius Buchwald’s book “Iron and Steel in Ancient Times”
 
Remember that Americans like to do things quickly ....others take their time. In the Arctic , just North of Juha ,they have the Greenland Shark, which as far as can be determined can live for at least 500 years !! So cooling iron they take their time also. :D Cobalt is supposed to be posting my photos .

Finns can actually do things fast .In my own experience they do very well and fast
in Rally Racing ! I watched them, talked to them and were driven through the woods with them ! :)
 
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mete said:
Remember that Americans like to do things quickly ....others take their time. In the Arctic , just North of Juha ,they have the Greenland Shark, which as far as can be determined can live for at least 500 years !! So cooling iron they take their time also. :D Cobalt is supposed to be posting my photos .

Finns can actually do things fast .In my own experience they do very well and fast
in Rally Racing ! I watched them, talked to them and were driven through the woods with them ! :)
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Here they are. Grown in space by METE:D
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Cobalt , thanks for your help.
The equipment we had was a metallograph that used carbon arc for light. If there was a defect in the rod the exposure would be off and we had to do it again.
The dark areas in the photos are typically pearlite which is visible on a photo I enlarged. It was fun !
 
I have no idea of the proportions. It's just iron and carbon. I was fascinated by the lines and only later realized the significance . The lines represent the crystallographic planes of the cubic crystal. Made in the center of the universe, Brooklyn ! I made my own alloys here ,mostly maraging steel . :eek:
 
mete said:
I have no idea of the proportions. It's just iron and carbon. I was fascinated by the lines and only later realized the significance . The lines represent the crystallographic planes of the cubic crystal. Made in the center of the universe, Brooklyn ! I made my own alloys here ,mostly maraging steel . :eek:
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Yes, it looks to be similar to Widmanstatten structure of meteorites. I think the long lines are carbides. I have studied a lot carbide structures of steels and cast irons, but never seen similar arrangement. Perhaps it is not just iron and carbon, it may have some trace elements which have influenced on the formation of the structure during cooling. Interesting material.
 
I found it very interesting that the finding of the mineral a Vanadium and Niobium rich Osbornite Just like my blades of CPM S35VN , now the favorite of mine and many makers and users , of the 'powder metal ' steels. Was Crucible just "reinventing the wheel " ?
 
mete said:
I found it very interesting that the finding of the mineral a Vanadium and Niobium rich Osbornite Just like my blades of CPM S35VN , now the favorite of mine and many makers and users , of the 'powder metal ' steels. Was Crucible just "reinventing the wheel " ?
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No, to much Chromium in S35vn.
 
mete said:
I found it very interesting that the finding of the mineral a Vanadium and Niobium rich Osbornite Just like my blades of CPM S35VN , now the favorite of mine and many makers and users , of the 'powder metal ' steels. Was Crucible just "reinventing the wheel " ?
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You do not need meteoric Osbornite. Nb is rare but V and Ti are quite common in earth's crust. Here are examples of mineral compositions of iron sands, the raw material of traditional Japanese steel, for instance, used in samurai swords.
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Iron sand contains relative large amount of Ti and V oxides. But in the traditional steel smelting process Ti and V remained in oxides and they went into slag; they did not go into the steel improving its properties.

However, perhaps, we can speculate that some brilliant ancient Japanese smith were able to make Ti and V containing steel. Firstly I think micro alloyed fine grained steel. If the effective Ti content was 0.01% or V content 0.1%, it was sufficient for making steel with superfine grain size and superior properties. I wish I had time and money to study Japanese blades.
 
Juha Perttula said:
Interesting link, we have good evidences that man used meteoric iron during Bronze Age. But we can also assume that meteoric iron was used during Neolithic Stone Age despite archaologists do not know very ancient meteoric Stone Age artefacts. But at 1800's, indigenous people of Greenland, Inuit, still lived in Stone Age, and they utilized meteoric iron. They had sources tens of tons meteoric iron, which they had had utilized since time immemorial. Unfortunately Robert Peary stole their material and sold it to American Museum of Natural History.

Wikipedia also knows this meteorite https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_York_meteorite
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I found the link to be fascinating Juha. Thanks.
 
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