milesofalaska
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2010
- Messages
- 514
Meteroriite knives are popular and sell for me, but I have trouble making something called 'a knife,' that serves no purpose but to look at. Meteorite is not great alone as a functional material for edge holding. So while I like a knife to be decorative, different ,have a story, it needs to work! I've mixed meteorite with scrap Damascus and figured out some things to do and do nots. I wanted to have a good steel edge. How? It was suggested I weld a steel bead to the edge of the meteorite! Told it only works ok with one type of meteorite. Oh. Hmm. I'm not. a good welder it turns out. Someone else might pull that off. I discovered that in most cases brazing is stronger on meteorites due to lower temperatures and better compatibility of metals. Best to go down the full length of the blade, no breaks. Oh, how would you heat treat a brazed blade that has copper and brass at a lower melting point than the heat treat? I figured it out. Grin. Here are some results.
Above is meteorite with 1095 edge I acid etch with scenes, showing copper and brass as decorative and funcional. Yes it holds up in tests, no it is not fragil.
Above is a mix of meteoprite damasscus and a high carbon edge with experimental acid etch, to help blend it all together into a functional story kinfe. Focus now is on just blades. I've been offering the some of blades to others. Not decided on thewse as I focus for now on makikng more blades. I have a couple of good sources for meteorite at the Tucson Gem mineral fosisl show, set up a few doors down from me so get a lot of meterotie advice and material from these guys. Yea, if you happen to haver an extra couple of grand for meteorite slices, geez. I tried to cut a big one and find out "Yea, that's microscopic diamond dust from space, going to be hard to cut." Oh. So much for "meteorites are made of iron and nickle." And other stuff. I do find heating most tyopes of meteorite beyond light red can change the properires, burn off wanted elements, make pits, weak spots. It's tricky.
Above -custom lost wax cast humming bvird guard from Yukon River barge propeller.
Above used mammoth bone for stand. One theory is the mammoth died off after space stuff hit the earth.... and so the meteeolrite material in the blade might have been the last thing this mammoth saw, staring up in wonder as the sky blew up. Alaska river birch handle harvested where the mammoth bone was found. The numming bird? Umm. It fit. So I'll tie it into the story somehow. Magical littel things that fly and we wonder how they do that! Oh some experiments afre cruder rhen others, perfecting an untired way to do things takes some fooling around to perfect. "Do not pay attentiion to that man behind the curtain! I am Oz!" The um, great and powerful.
Above is meteorite with 1095 edge I acid etch with scenes, showing copper and brass as decorative and funcional. Yes it holds up in tests, no it is not fragil.
Above is a mix of meteoprite damasscus and a high carbon edge with experimental acid etch, to help blend it all together into a functional story kinfe. Focus now is on just blades. I've been offering the some of blades to others. Not decided on thewse as I focus for now on makikng more blades. I have a couple of good sources for meteorite at the Tucson Gem mineral fosisl show, set up a few doors down from me so get a lot of meterotie advice and material from these guys. Yea, if you happen to haver an extra couple of grand for meteorite slices, geez. I tried to cut a big one and find out "Yea, that's microscopic diamond dust from space, going to be hard to cut." Oh. So much for "meteorites are made of iron and nickle." And other stuff. I do find heating most tyopes of meteorite beyond light red can change the properires, burn off wanted elements, make pits, weak spots. It's tricky.
Above -custom lost wax cast humming bvird guard from Yukon River barge propeller.
Above used mammoth bone for stand. One theory is the mammoth died off after space stuff hit the earth.... and so the meteeolrite material in the blade might have been the last thing this mammoth saw, staring up in wonder as the sky blew up. Alaska river birch handle harvested where the mammoth bone was found. The numming bird? Umm. It fit. So I'll tie it into the story somehow. Magical littel things that fly and we wonder how they do that! Oh some experiments afre cruder rhen others, perfecting an untired way to do things takes some fooling around to perfect. "Do not pay attentiion to that man behind the curtain! I am Oz!" The um, great and powerful.
....Cool and Props to you and your problem solving! 