Meteorite blades: advantages v. disadvantages?

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Ned

Joined
Mar 23, 2001
Messages
18
I'm intrigued by the look of meteorite blades, but I wonder about their functional characteristics. Edge hold, sharpness, stain and rust resistance, and strength. Does anyone have any experience with them or can anyone suggest other places to look.

Thanks, Ned
 
There have been articles in all the major magazines about meteorite blades and blades made from meteorite damascus. All the info I have read mention the fact that meteorite added to a blade does not help edge holding, and in fact diminishes edge holding ability. Meteorite in blades seems to be added for the appearance and novelty factor.

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Danbo, soul brother of Rambo
 
Meteorites are useless as a blade steel simply because they cannot be tempered. There is no edge holding ability. They are strikingly beautiful and are great handle materials. Knives that are made with meteorite material tend to have a high "Gee-Whiz" factor that offsets their lack of functionality. Personally, I'm holding out for a meteorite blade with Unicorn horn handles
biggrin.gif

David

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AKTI# A000150
NC Custom Knifemakers Guild member
NC Knife Knuts member
 
David's right, meteorite is mainly composed of iron and nickel. Just like the earth's core. That way you can say that the earth is a big meteorite.
Anyway, It's often used in damascus for the same reason I use beercaps.. nickel and forgeweld ability. thecnically you can have a synthetically made iron with nickel in, just like meteor iron.

Basically you just pay the name meteorite iron. It really doesn't mean much just iron mixed with nickel. what makes it special sometimes is it's purity. no sulphur or silicon and others... but technology has advanced so far now, that those metals can be duplicated easy (I am here at a university quit frequently in the chemistry lab.. they have a nickel Iron mix and I get the leftovers of those wires. I melt them to a plate, and forge weld them ).

Greetz, Bart.

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Is there a way to hammer in some carbon? Not to make a modern blade, but to simulate some ancient techniques. What do they do with krisses with meteoric iron mixes?
 
I own a custom folder with three different classes of meteorite. Here's a link to my website with some pics and all the info. Mine is the knife on the left. Click on the picture for a hi-res version. In this case, the blade is O1 carbon steel with an O1/meteorite san-mai damascus combo on either side of the core. That solves the usability problem with the soft meteorite (if you were so inclined to use a blade like this.)


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Kelly
My Custom Knife Collection

Member NCCKG, SCAK, and AKTI

Deo Vindice
 
Meteorites are either rare or not rare, depending on if you are buying or selling. I happen to have a good size one(2kg) from the Odessa Texas strike. They are examples of material from when our solar system first formed about 4-5 billion years ago and as such, I have a hard time seeing them hammered into blades. George Tichbourne, in my opinion, does the correct solution by etching the nickel-iron ones to show a characteristic Widmanstatten(spelling?) pattern. They offer nothing but novelty to a blade. Dick
 
Kelly -- Thank you VERY MUCH for having the link to the Hubble telescope pictures on your site.

Actually completely forgot about knives for half an hour. Don't do that very often. Wonderful place to find. I really appreciate it.



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Bugs
 
Thanks to all for the good comments on meteorite blades. I think I have a clearer picture now of their benefits and limitations.

Ned

 
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