Mustang Knife = Rainbow Steel?

blue lander

blue lander

Joined
Aug 16, 2011
Messages
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Awhile ago I bought one of those beautiful Mustang knives from Auntie. The Mustang region of Nepal is heavily influenced by Tibetan culture, so it's no surprise the Mustang knife was heavily influenced by Tibetan knife design. One thing I thought was odd about the Mustang knife is that the blade appeared to be laminated, or made from folded steel. You wouldn't see this technique used if it was made from plain recycled spring steel like an HI made khukri.

I read on another board about knives and swords made in Tibet out of "Rainbow steel". It's made out of several kinds of steel mined from Yigong mountain

http://www.muslim2china.com/blog/Li...g-Tibetan-Knife-in-NyingChi-of-Tibet-886.html

So I wondered if the Mustang knife was made from a similar method. I gave it a quick etch with some Ferric Chloride...

IMG_0343.jpg

... So the blade's definitely made from folded steel, and when you look at it under certain light it does reflect "rainbow" colors. Almost like an oil slick.

I did a really terrible sloppy etch job, so I'm going to polish it back up. I might try to give it a proper etch or just leave it shiny lookin'.
 
Hard to tell from photo but would offer a cautionary in that i own several laminate blades sold as such....and own others most certainly not but which instead show what could be taken as such simply by the burning of edge with grind/polish and also those whose heat treat produced a pronounced line.....and acid etc would only accentuate those effects....much easier to tell difference in person and i defer otherwise to person holding the blade.
 
I am intrigued enough to start paying more attention to a Mustang knife as a prospect even though i normally buy more practical things (such as a tarwar?).
 
I know that this particular knife has never been polished or sharpened since Blue has had it. He mentioned it when he got it and we did some comparison. Mine shows no sign at all of lamination. I've not etched it or anything just good magnification.
 
And the blade exhibits the same line on both sides?.....as with a laminate which line would vary somewhat due to grinding......or a line on one only side as folded over only part way?....most folded wootz is going to have 1/2/4 layers, while a laminate normally 3....
 
It's definitely not wootz or anything like that. If it's anything it'd be "hairpin" folded steel.

I've polished the blade back up and I'm going to do another nicer etch. I used too much Ferric Chloride last time which turned the metal orange.
 
Ok.....i get your drift....a single maybe short fold to one side....and i will forever wonder the reason....conservation of metal?.....or perhaps an interesting way of making thinner available stock thicker at top?.....technically if a good weld, it should offer laminate advantage in strength....no weak spot going more than halfway through blade and and any possible imperfections hardly likely to align with one another....
 
image.jpg

This pic gives a good idea how they fold the steel. These days they just do it for aestetics or spiritual reasons. Back in the day of course it's because their smelting technology could only produce small pieces of steel that had to be banged together and folded for strength.

Here's a picture of an older knife of a similar style from another board

image.jpg
 
When trying to view your links, it says the administrator thinks I'm an invalid. Should I feel badly about this.

I mean we invalids got rights too right?
 
Okey dokey artichokey, i see you did not mean a hairpin shorter on one side....neato.....still would think there often a practical reason behind such, as well....often the practical should be and does become spiritualised, but not near so often the opposite.....even anti-religious eggheads cannot help but do so, such as cave paintings deep and inaccessible in the side of a mountain and said eggheads explaining away all religion as based on primitive shamanistic ritual deep below ground........when probably it was a children's protected nursery for all we know....

And laminate steel can have it all over solid in many cases....many times folk continue to do things for a far better reason than simply habit...they do it because it WORKS.......this would even extend to the previous mentioned eggheads forgetting anyone sophisticated enough to create graceful paintings would not have continued a religious habit had it not WORKED...
 
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