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Posted: 2/4/2016 11:43:55 PM EDT
I responded to a post in GD regarding meteorite. I am making some Damascus steel for a knife project and someone suggested I do a thread about it. So here it is.
I received a request from a gentleman wanting me to make a couple of knives using his meteorites. I took on the challenge. I have done this in the past so it really is not new but still challenging as I never know what to expect. I received the Meteorites and have begun the process. 
Next I want to smash them and break them up as much as possible. Into my press. 
The smashed and broken pieces. Weight of the original material. 
Since there was so little of the original material I needed to add some from my personal stash. This is actually granulated meteorite. 
And the pieces I will add of my Campo. 
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Posted: 2/4/2016 11:53:41 PM EDT
[#1]
Here is the combined meteorite and granulated material. 1 1/2lbs of Meteorite.
I will add the Meteorite material to some powdered 1095 steel. It will all go into this 4x4x6" steel box. 
Powder and Medeorite mixed 
And into the can. 
Now I need to seal the box and get it hot. I did not take a picture of this part. Just welded a cap on the end and pressed the powder down as much as I could cold. Now I need to forge it out. 
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Posted: 2/4/2016 11:57:20 PM EDT
[#2]
this one will be good....;....tagged.
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Posted: 2/4/2016 11:58:48 PM EDT
[#3]
Keep drawing it out until I get to where I need it.
I had to do some other work for a couple weeks and started on this again yesterday but broke my press. I fixed it today and started up again. Here is the billet after I finished up for the day. I cut it in half and am working on the lower portion. 
I am hoping this will have streaks of nickel meteorite with nickle meteorite flecks on a dark blade. Kind of like the night sky. This is all I have got done for now. I will keep this up to date as I make progress. |
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Posted: 2/5/2016 1:07:21 AM EDT
[#4]
I am very interested in this
Look forward to seeing the rest of the process and the finished product. Great post |
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Posted: 2/5/2016 1:29:40 AM EDT
[#5]
I was watching 'Into The Forge' tonight, so keep the pics coming and thanks for sharing!
Chris |
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Posted: 2/5/2016 1:33:49 AM EDT
[#6]
Stare into this one for a while...
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Posted: 2/5/2016 4:03:48 AM EDT
[#7]
Gonna be awesome! Tagging for future.
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Posted: 2/5/2016 12:48:06 PM EDT
[#8]
Very interesting.
John |
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Posted: 2/5/2016 12:59:52 PM EDT
[#9]
This reminds me of the metal project my dad always talked about but never did- a sword made from :
1. The weapon of his enemies (in this case an SKS barrel) 2. Meteoric iron 3. Minnesota iron (he was from Minnesota) (Of course it would probably need carbon and other stuff too) I think he has the components somewhere (still going through all his shit) ETA: by the way, OP, you're awesome... |
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Posted: 2/5/2016 1:03:48 PM EDT
[#10]
ost
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Posted: 2/5/2016 3:31:58 PM EDT
[#11]
in!
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Posted: 2/5/2016 4:41:15 PM EDT
[#12]
I have no idea what or how you're doing that but I really want to see the finished product!
Wasn't there some news article about some gun that was going to be made out of a meteorite a few weeks ago? |
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Posted: 2/5/2016 5:11:40 PM EDT
[#13]
IN!
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Posted: 2/5/2016 5:24:38 PM EDT
[#14]
holy crap this is gonna be good.
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Posted: 2/6/2016 9:02:22 PM EDT
[#15]
in.................
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Posted: 2/6/2016 9:13:47 PM EDT
[#16]
Just came in from the forge. Will be posting some more shots shortly..
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Posted: 2/6/2016 9:25:53 PM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Just came in from the forge. Will be posting some more shots shortly.. with bated breath I wait. |
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Posted: 2/6/2016 9:31:31 PM EDT
[#18]
Tagging because this is pretty freaking awesome.
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Posted: 2/6/2016 9:32:09 PM EDT
[#19]
IN, I love knife making.
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Posted: 2/6/2016 9:43:20 PM EDT
[#20]
Video is taking forever to upload. Nothing fancy just some power hammer action.
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Posted: 2/6/2016 10:05:27 PM EDT
[#21]
In!
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Posted: 2/6/2016 10:22:13 PM EDT
[#22]
Ok, Here is another day. Lets get things warmed up....
That is the bar from the last post. I will be drawing it out making it into a more usable size for knife blades. Now here is some action forging the bar and drawing it out. I would recommend turning your sound down a little. It is rather loud. Also please excuse the shaky video, hard to forge and video by myself. 
After a few heats I have now drawn the bar into .25x1.25x31" 
Next I will forge the tang of the blade. It will look like this. 
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Posted: 2/6/2016 10:39:13 PM EDT
[#23]
The job I am working on requires 2 knife blades. I normally make twice the number for a couple of reasons. First if anything happens to some of them I do not have to start over again. Second It is good to have a couple on hand for future orders or show stock. Does not take that much longer to just forge a few out. In this case I decided to just go ahead and forge the entire bar into blades. First all the tangs.
Next I forge the profiles. These are rough profiles which will be cleaned up on the grinder. I can forge bevels in but have found it much more efficient to just grind them from here. 
I did do a hardening test just to make sure these would actually harden up. It did, hard as glass as we like to say. Broke a small portion of a tang off and had really nice small grain structure. I did not take a photo of this as it is very hard to capture. Now let's take a look at what the pattern may look like. First I grind all the scale off and clean it up to 400 grit. 
Then a quick dip into Ferric Chloride to bring out the pattern. 
And here it is.. 
Came out like I had imagined. All the silver streaking is the meteorite. I could have made it look more like traditional Damascus but then it would be hard to tell what the meteorite was. This way I can assuredly point out the parts that are meteorite. The large streaks are the chunks I broke up and the smaller ones are from the granules. In all from light off to finish it took a little over 4 hours to do this portion. A bit less than an hour per blade today. Not too bad. Now on to the grinding on Monday. Will post more after the grinding. |
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Posted: 2/6/2016 10:42:12 PM EDT
[#24]
Badass! In!
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Posted: 2/6/2016 11:03:48 PM EDT
[#25]
looks great
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Posted: 2/6/2016 11:10:11 PM EDT
[#26]
So fucking in
 OP should sign up for Forged in Fire |
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Posted: 2/6/2016 11:40:07 PM EDT
[#27]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
So fucking in
OP should sign up for Forged in Fire Yea, I know some of the contestants. JD Smith is one of my mentors. He did not follow the instructions and washed out in the first round.  He would have been great to see in the finish.
I really have no desire to do the show. Did think about it but decided against it. Too many things I don't like about the process. |
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Posted: 2/7/2016 12:19:27 AM EDT
[#28]
Looking good, can't wait to see the end result.
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Posted: 2/7/2016 10:15:52 AM EDT
[#29]
fantastic thread... keep it up!
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Posted: 2/7/2016 10:48:31 AM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted: fantastic thread... keep it up! Yeah, this thread is really cool......I'll be paying close attention to this. Nicely done OP.  |
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Posted: 2/7/2016 11:17:09 AM EDT
[#31]
Aside from looks, is there any benefit to using meteorite material versus anything else?
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Posted: 2/7/2016 11:32:46 AM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Aside from looks, is there any benefit to using meteorite material versus anything else? I'm curious as to what metals make up the meteorite material. That being said, it's a pretty damn cool and unique idea. I don't see such a knife competing for any utilitarian awards, but as a bad ass collection piece, I'd be really interested in owning one. |
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Posted: 2/7/2016 12:07:01 PM EDT
[#33]
That is awesome OP!!
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Posted: 2/7/2016 12:42:38 PM EDT
[#34]
I want to watch too...in
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Posted: 2/7/2016 12:58:17 PM EDT
[#35]
Very cool! Thanks for this thread.
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Posted: 2/7/2016 1:23:28 PM EDT
[#36]
There are actually disadvantages to using meteorite. No advantages at all. There can be a lot if impurities that will cause problems. That is one reason I smashed them. This broke up the minerals that would have caused problems. It is only the novelty of using an extraterrestrial material. Some think it gives supernatural abilities and performance. That is why they sell so well in China.
I had a chemical analysis of the campo I have. It was 96percent iron 3 percent nickel and 1 percent trace elements. Pretty pure material. There is enough carbon in the 1095 to migrate into the meteorite. It will create about a 1080 steel. This will allow full hardening. It will be a perfectly serviceable knife. If it were pure nickel then I would cause problems. I will not allow carbon migration and will not harden. Pure nickel at the edge would be too soft. |
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Posted: 2/7/2016 6:39:24 PM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Wasn't there some news article about some gun that was going to be made out of a meteorite a few weeks ago? http://cabotgun.com/2015/12/cabot-meteorite-pistol-set/ |
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Posted: 2/7/2016 6:45:43 PM EDT
[#38]
Now that is a chunk of Iron. Those will be beautiful when complete. 1/4mil beautiful not sure of though.
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Posted: 2/7/2016 7:04:16 PM EDT
[#39]
I wonder how long those rocks had been floating around in space before landing on earth?
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Posted: 2/9/2016 11:15:38 PM EDT
[#40]
Star Steel! Very cool OP, thanks for sharing the process and the journey.
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Posted: 2/9/2016 11:49:47 PM EDT
[#41]
Sorry I did not get out to the shop yesterday. Helping a friend rebuild his house after a fire.
So lets get things going again. Here are the blades I have on the bench right now. All in different stages of completion. 
The meteor blades are in the upper right corner. I need to get them rough ground along with the blades just below. I use my 2x72 belt grinder. THis is a 36 grit belt and it can really remove the material. 
An hour or so and 2 belts later they are rough ground. 
I need to set the shoulders. For this I use a precision ground fixture of hardened D2 die steel. It allows me to file the shoulders flat and square. 
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Posted: 2/9/2016 11:57:17 PM EDT
[#42]
For the Filing I use a round edge bastard file. The rounded edge keeps the inside corners from being to sharp. This can cause stress risers and possible cracking either during the quench in the heat treating or during use.
And both sides filed. 
The profiled blade with nice square shoulders. 
That is all for today. spent 10 hours in the shop doing some forging and this grinding. I did get all the meteorite blades to this stage. More later. |
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Posted: 2/10/2016 12:22:07 AM EDT
[#43]
This is awesome.
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Posted: 2/10/2016 11:42:13 AM EDT
[#44]
I love these threads. Thanks for sharing.
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Posted: 2/10/2016 12:08:07 PM EDT
[#45]
Quote HistoryQuoted: http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j351/Chuck_Richards/Knife%20Projects/0209161545a_zpsidcomvm0.jpg The meteor blades are in the upper right corner. Cool thread. Tell me more about that guy in the lower right! |
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Posted: 2/10/2016 2:15:53 PM EDT
[#46]
Source for round edge bastard files?
I just dumped a couple hundred bucks on a nice variety but didn't see any round edges when I was shopping. |
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Posted: 2/10/2016 3:47:14 PM EDT
[#47]
Lower right is going to be finished like this.
The round edge files I got off Amazon last time. I get the 10". |
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Posted: 2/10/2016 7:12:14 PM EDT
[#48]
Thanks I never thought to look there.
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Posted: 2/10/2016 7:27:49 PM EDT
[#49]
Looking beautiful. Keep it up.
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Posted: 2/11/2016 12:21:28 AM EDT
[#50]
Well today was not a productive as I would have liked but I did get a bit done. A lot of cleaning up the profiles, setting shoulders on the other 6 damascus blades. Removing scale and making everything parallel. Now onto grinding. First I need to establish the center of the blade. This is done with a height gauge.
This scribes the center-line to grind to. 
Next I set the edge by grinding a heavy bevel. This gives me a better visual of how far I need to grind. 
Now to rough grind the bevels. 
And the end result of the day to this point. 
I still need to finish grind these. This will refine the bevels and make sure they are even on the blade. I will take pics when I do that. I hope this is not getting to boring. There is a lot of tedium making knives. This is one reason I try to have more than one project going. It allows me to do different processes when I get tired of one. That's it for today. |
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