Gibeon Meteorite Dagger - Collaberative WIP

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Burl Source

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About 10 years ago my wife bought a slab of gibeon meteorite for me. She thought it could be made into a knife blade. A lot of old kung fu movies would talk about swords being made from meteorite that were indestructible and had magical powers. I know this stuff has magical powers, what I was wondering is could it be made into a knife?

I was informed by a number of makers that heat treating would ruin the patterns in the steel. I wanted to preserve the natural meteorite patterns so I decided that if it couldn't be heat treated I would use it for a dagger shaped art knife.

The chemical composition of the Gibeon is:
# 90% iron
# 8% nickel
# 0.4% cobalt
# 0.04% phosphorus.
The steel when etched shows a pattern called Widmanstatten that looks like crosshatching or a plaid pattern. You might be able to see a bit of this in the photo. This piece is pretty scuffed from carrying it around for so long.

gm.jpg


A while back I posted the above info on another forum. Delbert Ealy agreed to work with me on this project. He had a good bit of experience working with meteorite and was highly recommended by other forum members. His part in this project was to grind, polish and etch the blade. The only request I made was that it be a dagger blade. The shape, grind and etching were his decisions to make.

Del finished the blade and snapped a few photos before dropping the blade in the mail. Here are a few photos. Your comments are welcomed.

m1.jpg

m2.jpg

m3.jpg


This surpasses my wildest expectations. Delbert is amazing.
I knew he was good, but he worked miracles with the meteorite slab I sent to him. I had no idea he could bring out the natural patterns in the steel like he did. Not to mention the shaping of the blade.

Next step will be to send the blade to Fred Rowe.
Fred just recently agreed to take part in the making of this knife. My thinking was that I would give some very loose guidelines for the guard and pommel. Leaving most of the design of this part of the knife to his own creativity.

After seeing what he comes up with I will decide what to have done next. I have a very talented carver and a jeweler who would like to add their efforts as well. I guess it will sort of evolve as it goes along. In the end it should be a really unusual dagger.
 
John Barker said:
Wow! That is really cool. Great work from Delbert.
-John
Click to expand...

I agree. I could have never expected results like what Del accomplished. I find myself saying WOW a lot. If anyone else has comments about what Del accomplished with this, feel free to post them here.
 
Those cross hatching patterns look sooo cool!

Fred Rowe has made some really good knives, so he definitely won't do anything bad to this one.
 
very cool.

Delbert, how much forging can you do before you lose the widmanstatten pattern?

If you take it to critical temp (what ever that might be) and quench, does it go away?
 
That is am awesome concept and I am looking forward to witnessing the progress! Thanks for posting.
 
BossDog said:
very cool.

Delbert, how much forging can you do before you lose the widmanstatten pattern?

If you take it to critical temp (what ever that might be) and quench, does it go away?
Click to expand...

Boss,
The meteorite cannot be forged at all without losing the pattern. At about 1200f the patterns start going away. As you get hotter they dissappear entirely. Part of the reason the patterns are so cool is that the grain size is ENORMOUS, it also makes it a bugger to work with. :eek:
 
Delbert Ealy said:
Boss,
The meteorite cannot be forged at all without losing the pattern. At about 1200f the patterns start going away. As you get hotter they dissappear entirely. Part of the reason the patterns are so cool is that the grain size is ENORMOUS, it also makes it a bugger to work with. :eek:
Click to expand...

well, that is what I was thinking. I have seen some pictures some time ago of some meteorite lathe swarf forged into something that still had some of the traces of pattern intact. I have a couple small chunks of gibeon meteorite I've held for a half dozen years. It still hasn't told me what it wants to be yet.
 
Personally, I would expect nothing less from Del. The Man knows what he's doin'! 2thumbs2thumbs2thumbs

Can't wait to see it done.cool 1
 
The blade arrived in the mail today. Here are a few more photos. This stuff is hard to photograph to make it look anywhere near as good as it looks in person. Once again, Del did a fantastic job on this. Thanks Del!

To me the pattern in the steel looks like cubes on top of cubes. Sort of like an Escher drawing.

md1.jpg

md3.jpg

md2.jpg
 
I received a phone call today from an engraver who might be willing to take part in this project. From what I've heard, he is one of the best. I won't mention his name but will leave it up to him whether he wants to post his comments or ideas.
 
Comments ??? You betcha ol hoss. I'm looking forward to this commission, Mr. Burl and I talked at some length today re. just what he wanted this project to look like in his minds eye. I think this is going to be one of those knives that has what we call legs --- that is, a knife that lives im memory long after it has been published --- a knife that folks will remember for being tastefully done with style & class. Bring her on ........
 
Thanks for the post Ken and thanks to the rest of you guys who have been following it along. Just talked to Fred and he likes the idea about using the 416 stainless like you mentioned. As far as you taking part; In his words he said "Ken does some stunning work" and that he is excited about this collaboration. You really got me thinking after our conversation today. I was going to work late today, but instead I will be going home to re-work my drawings. Thanks for agreeing to help make this such a fun project.
Mark
 
That is the most amazing blade I have ever seen. I can't wait to see what you guys do with it! It is so... so... PRIMAL. Give is a hardcore caveman theme! Stabilized mammoth ivory and some forged iron (peened for looks) guard/pommel with a strange runic like engraving (like it was made from a long dead alien language)! But the engraving should just look like a decorative pattern that matches the geometric pattern of the meteorite blade. Then give it a sheath that resembles trilobite plates.

Well that in what I invisioned for a brief moment ;)
 
I decided to keep the design fairly traditional instead of going the fantasy knife route. Tomorrow I will be emailing drawings to Fred and Ken for their input. When we come to some sort of consensus I will post the drawings in this thread. After each phase is completed, we will post updated photos as well.
 
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