How Hard It Is To Make A Blade With Meteorite.

[gauze3539]

Hi. I was wondering how hard it is to make a blade with meteorite such as gibeon to compare to the general tamahagane. I know there is the Tentetsutou created by Yoshindo Yoshihara but is that the only example? I hope it's not so much different from tamahagane so that I could make it by commission to a smith in the future. It's been always my dream to have one made from meteorite katana or tachi. If anyone know about it, please let me know. I have been searching to get any information about it but never able to get anywhere so I am asking here. Thanks.

 

Jason C

[DigsFossils-n-Knives]

First I'd like to point out that all iron on this planet or in iron meteorites was formed most likely from a supernova.  The two things that would make it a challenge to forge a blade are:

1) the cost -  iron meteorites are very expensive

2) understanding the composition of the meteorite so that it can be blended with other metals or 'stuff' to achieve the right amount of carbon and useful elements and hopefully dilute out the of bad or unnecessary elements.  Or maybe use it to make a Damascus like blade.

 

FYI:  Wiki claims that a Gibeon Meteorite is 91.8% Fe; 7.7% Ni; 0.5% Co; 0.04% P and other trace elements. 

[Kevin Adams]

Head over to bladesmithforum.com, do a search for "meteorite" and read up.

 

I don't know about swords, but the smiths over there are making knives and experimenting with pattern-welding using meteorite.

[Ken-Hawaii]

Jason, if you do quick search on NMB, you'll find several discussions on meteoritic swords. The main problem with using solely meteorites is that the relatively high percentage of nickle makes it very difficult to form the hamon.

 

Ken

[gauze3539]

Ok thank you very much guys. I found some several infor Kam.

[Pablo668]

No idea how it would effect the metal, but meteorites also contain a much higher content of Iridium than anything from the earths crust. It's how they tell where Meteorites have come down in the past.

[bigjohnshea]

It is the nickle content that smiths have to worry about the most when making meteorite blades.  Nickle makes steel brittle, and iron from meteorites has much more nickle in it than iron from terrestrial sources.  So much so that one of the first tests a lab runs on an unknown iron specimen (to verify it is an iron meteorite, and not a manmade slag iron that looks meteoritic) is the nickle reagent test.

 

As for the cost of meteoritic iron vs. tamahagane?  I'm an avid meteorite collector, and a minor player in the merchant circles, but I don't know what tamahagane costs right out of the kiln. You can get some meteorite irons relatively cheap.  For as much as a katana blade weighs (1kg at most it seems) you can easily get 2kg of Campo meteorite specimens for $500-$1000. The cost of any meteorite varies by rarity and beauty.  Campo (for example) is not at all rare, and there are many pieces out there that are not attractive.

[Ken-Hawaii]

I think you're comparing apples & oranges, John.  Tamahagane is made very infrequently these days, & I doubt any of it is for sale, except to specific tosho.  Meteorites, on the other hand, are relatively inexpensive, & are much easier to find.  The one I donated to the Ando-san at the Bizen-Osafune Sword Village set me back all of $100, plus shipping to Piers.

 

Ken

 

[SAS]

Neither material is ideal for the task, and therein lies the art