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Sir Terry Pratchett

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  • I'm also sharing this project:

    https://web.archive.org/web/20081113091234/http://www.elfic.fr/scrimpages/alchimie/nigredo.htm

    A French blacksmith who did this knife using a meteorite and mammoth ivory.

    Alchimie

    Edit: a bit more details on the blade: he melted the meteorite himself, however since the meteorite did not have any carbon and had a really high nickel content or would have make a terrible steel so he added a bit of carbon and some raw iron do dilute the nickel.

    Except for that the blade is entirely made from the meteorite.

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    • Tldr knife nerd rant about steel quality. You can probably skip this and not miss out on anything.

      Gonna be honest, as someone who also makes knives and swords, hearing that someone heated the meteorite up to red hot is enough to hurt my soul, finding out they actually melted it down or got it hot enough to fold and homogenize the steel just makes me angry.

      You're killing everything that makes the meteorite cool, and making it no different than a chunk of scrap steel you find at a slag dump.

      The cool stuff to me is the shape of it, and the amazing crystalline patterns you get when meteorites are etched with acid.

      Meteors cooled over a very long time, and the longer the steel takes to cool, the larger the crystalline structure. For usable knives, you want that crystalline structure to be very small. That's what the "quench" is in knife making. Super basic heat treatment has you heat the steel until it's no longer magnetic, then plunge the steel into oil. The rapid cooling makes sure the crystalline structure is small.

      So my favorite meteorite knives are the ones with regular knife steel, and then they incorporate the etched meteo into the design. Some even set it into the blade in its own little puzzle piece, some put it as a handle accent, some put it into the sheath. I'm a fan of all of these.

      Sure, it makes it technically more rare, but so does putting caesium in your turkey sandwich.

      Can't argue with his skill though. We may differ in opinions on meteorite use, but hot damn is that a sexy knife. I've seen some pretty fantastic railroad spike knives in my day.

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