Meteorite knife

Jan Hendrik · Jul 6, 2017

No engraving on this one, sorry.
I tried to convince my client to do some engraving as well, however he seems to be a bit conservative in this particular case, not wanting to draw attention away from the Gibeon meteorite blade on the knife. This is the first of 13 meteorite knives commissioned by my client.
My second attempt at using photoshop to make up layered images.
Blade: Gibeon Meteorite showing the Widmanstatten pattern
Bolsters: 304 Stainless steel
Handle: Mammoth tusk
Overall length: 165mm
Photography by: Jan Hendrik Viljoen

Jerry K · Jul 6, 2017

What a pretty knife! All the components are ageless. How difficult was the blade to work?
Thanx for the pic.
Jerry K

monk · Jul 6, 2017

beauty of a job. curious to know-- the meteorite material:: how well does it compare to the steels you normally use to create your blades? i'd think that meteoric metall large enough for such work would be very expensive.

Adder · Jul 7, 2017

Beautyful knife! Can I ask you what kind of grinder you use to produce such pretty knives?

JÃ¸rn-Ove

Jan Hendrik · Jul 7, 2017

Jerry K said:
What a pretty knife! All the components are ageless. How difficult was the blade to work?
Thanx for the pic.
Jerry K

The metal itself is quite soft but great care should be taken to prevent the meteorite from overheating (burning the metal) as this destroys the patterns in the metal. Hand sanding the hollow grind with finer grit sandpaper is the real problem as deep scratches appear out of nowhere!

Jan Hendrik · Jul 7, 2017

monk said:
beauty of a job. curious to know-- the meteorite material:: how well does it compare to the steels you normally use to create your blades? i'd think that meteoric metall large enough for such work would be very expensive.

The meteorite is quite soft and can't be hardened due to virtually zero carbon being present in the metal structure. These knives are for display purposes only.

Jan Hendrik · Jul 7, 2017

Adder said:
Beautyful knife! Can I ask you what kind of grinder you use to produce such pretty knives?

JÃ¸rn-Ove

I use our locally manufactured Herbst Ultimate belt grinder.

WSammut · Jul 7, 2017

Looks great! Doing a set of meteor rings, any advice on working the metal? Same technique for etching as demascus?

Jan Hendrik · Jul 7, 2017

Not the same etching techniques as damascus.
First clean using acetone and ultrasonic cleaning will help as well (use rubber gloves). Etch with dilute Nitric acid, then rinse in water with dissolved baking soda, then rinse in purified water to get rid of the baking soda.

Meteorite knife

Jan Hendrik

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Jerry K

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monk

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Adder

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Jan Hendrik

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Jan Hendrik

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Jan Hendrik

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WSammut

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Jan Hendrik

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