Adrian's Meteorite Knife

[1dave]

Note the DATES. Sorry I had to leave out all the great member comments. -Dave

Jan 11, 2012 12:08:01 GMT -5 adrian65 said:

Hello everyone!

These days I started a project I had in mind since last November.
It all got started when I visited Mineralientage Munchen, where I found some meteorite slabs. I firstly intended to buy a slab to make a knife entirely out of it, but it would had been costing a real fortune. So I limited to a small triangular slabbet, which I planned to embed in a stainless steel knife.



Here is the slabbet (as small as you see it, it costed 20 euros, discount included) together with the sketch of the knife:




These days I also found some stainless steel strip (5 mm thick) so my project could really start.


Firstly, cutting and gross grinding the contour:


Then, smooth grinding of the knife's contour and then cutting the window for the meteorite piece.
Firstly, drilling holes inside window's contour:









Then, using a whole collection of files...


... I gradually brought the hollow to the meteorite's shape...


.

... until it fitted tight.




Given the difference between the meteorite slab (3 mm) and the stainless steel sheet (5mm), I split this difference in two by centering the slab and I chamfered the remaining edges, as you see here:



For the moment, the slab stays there just by friction, but of course I will solder it in position.
About the final finish of this slab, I balance between the two options:
1. Leaving it as it is, uncovered and slightly sunk compared to the rest of the surface of the blade.
2. Covering the meteorite slab with a thin layer of transparent epoxy., which I would polish together with the stainless steel blade.


I have pros an cons for each of the two options. On one side, I'd like to protect the meteorite from rusting and provide a smooth surface all across the blade. But on the other side, I am concerned about the behaviour in time of this epoxy layer and I somehow think that on a knife's blade any other material than metal is improper.

Any idea/opinion related to my dilemma is very welcome.

Grinding the blade to the meteorite's thickness is not an option, because once polished the interesting striped structure of the meteorite (called Wiedmanstaetten) would disappear and would only reveal with a chemical (acid) treatment which is beyond my skills and possibilities.



So, all in all, this is how the knife looks for the moment:


The total length of the knife is 310 mm.

Thank you for looking and for any advices,

Adrian

Feb 3, 2012 6:23:54 GMT -5 adrian65 said:

Hello, again. Time for the first update.
I was pretty caught with some job tasks these weeks so didn't have time to really work at the knife untill these days. I made some soldering tests though and figured out what you metal gurus warned me about: stainless steel is impossible to solder with usual materials and with my poor skills. The tin floats on the stainless steel plate like oil on water.

That being said, and with the aim of not adding on the blade any material but metal, I kinda changed the approach: I made a recess on each side of the blade. These recesses would host two copper frames which would exceed just a bit the edge of the meteorite slab. These two copper frames, when riveted, would hold the meteorite securely. Like in this drawing:


I made these recesses using my dremel:




And I kinda brought them to the final shape. Here's one of them:

Now, if only I had the copper sheet needed. Still looking for it.


But meantime I thought to add some copper wire inlay to the upper spine of the blade. So, back to the dremel to cut the groove:


Then, inserting the copper wire:


Hammering it more, to press it inside the groove as much as possible (BTW, the groove is kinda trapezoidal, wide base down and narrow base up, to hold the wire inside):


After some grinding and sanding...


...here is what came out:

(notice the other piece of stainless steel, which I used for some tests about wire inlay and file work)

Then, I continued the copper wire inlay on the spine of the handle, but this time not straight but zig-zag pattern.
Inserting the wire:


Copper wire inserted:


Finished:




So, that would be all for now, this is how the knife looks for the moment:


Thank you for looking,

Adrian

Feb 6, 2012 10:38:12 GMT -5 adrian65 said:

Thank you again!

Here's some new progress, not much, but glad that I found the needed copper! ;D

Couldn't find copper sheet, but found these copper fittings for plumbing.



So, I cut one of them and straightened it; one fitting proved to be enough for both of the frames I need.



Here is one of them, fitted in the recess:




The following operations would be cutting the inner window in those copper plates to turn them into frames and then riveting them along the contour.

Thanks for looking.

Adrian

Feb 10, 2012 14:41:53 GMT -5 adrian65 said:

Thank you everyone.

Here is a new update. I finished the blade. Here are some pics from the process.

Firstly, I cut the windows in the copper frames and brought them to the final shape:


Then I chamfered the inner edges of the frames and I polished those chamfered edges, because once riveted I couldn't polish them without scratching the meteorite slab:


For drilling I used my dremel:


Then I fixed the meteorite slab by riveting the two copper frames, as you see here:

Not very smooth, a lot of hammer dents for the moment, but they're gonna disappear as you will see.

Then I shaped the edge of the knife. I used for this the jig I built two years ago when I made the sword. It worked very well now, also:


As you see here, this device helps a lot in keeping a straight surface:


And I also used the jig for the first sanding stages:


This way the edges on the blade were more crisp, without being smoothed by the sanding process:


After that, there was a lot of polishing until I got the desired finish of the blade. Here it is, viewed from different angles:








Here's the macro photo of the point of the knife:


That's all for the moment. The bolsters are next to come.

Thanks for looking,

Adrian

Feb 16, 2012 11:36:47 GMT -5 adrian65 said:

Thank you, friends!

Helen, about your heat polishing question, I doubt this is possible for steel. But who knows, I am not good in heat related processes (as you see, all the joints I make on this knife are cold formed).

So, here's a new update. The bolsters. Not completely done, bust most of them.

Firstly, the roughly cut pieces:


Then, bit by bit, I got them close to their final shape (stuck together two by two, to obtain equal pieces):


In one of the front bolsters, I cut a window which would host a cab from a special stone.


I'm still waiting for the stone, so for the moment this is the stage of the front bolsters:




But meantime I focused on the rear bolsters.

Given the resemblance with a hawk's head, I tried to add more to this look by adding a special rivet as an eye. This rivet consists of a copper tube (5 mm ext. diameter) with a stainless steel rod inserted inside:


So, I riveted the rear bolsters using three rivets. The one is described above and the other two are made from a stainless steel rod (in fact an electrode).

Here are the rivets, right after hammering:

Not very smooth looking...


... but after a bit of grinding...


... and more sanding...

...the two stainless steel rivets became almost invisible. And the "eye" rivet is helping to the hawk head effect, I think.


So the here's the stage of the knife right now:




Thanks for looking,


Adrian

Feb 23, 2012 11:24:28 GMT -5 adrian65 said:

Hello, again. Here's a new update. It may not seem much, but at this stage a lot of detail work is needed to fit the pieces together.

Don, your idea about using native copper stone sounded very good, thanks a lot. Your idea reminded me about a slab given to me by Karen (karenfh). Thanks a lot, Karen!
From this slab I could extract a cab big enough to include in a bolster. So, even if initially I planned to put a cab only on the front-left bolster, I also cut a window and a matching cab on the front right one.
Here it is:


This native copper cab is not polished. It would be flushed to the bolster's level and then polished.



For the other bolster, I had in plan a special stone: a fire agate. For this reason I contacted Christopher (christopherl) and he was very helpful in choosing a piece to fit my project. I chose one not only big enough for the triangular cab, but also with a "cosmic" pattern, kinda matching the meteorite theme. Here it is, the cab roughly cut, firstly pictured dry...


... and then wet:


Then, slowly bringing it to the window's shape, until it fit inside:

(What might look like scratches on the cab are in fact the reflections of the wood grain of the table.)

I was polishing this cab, as I plan not to flush it to the bolster level (I am affraid of loosing the fire inside the stone).

Christopher, thank you for the top grade fire agate you gave to me. It was a pleasure to work with it. Very hard and solid stone.


The scales are next, For the moment, I only made the copper separators. These would go in between the two stones which I would use for each scale.




Thank you for looking,

Adrian

Feb 26, 2012 2:07:42 GMT -5 adrian65 said:

Hello everyone,

I finished the metal work and prepared the handle to host the stone scales.

I riveted the front bolsters. Bearing in mind the slightly domed fire agate cab in the left bolster, I wanted to add some round head rivets here to match the domed cab and especially protect it when the knife would be put this side down.

But I didn't have anything but some copper thick electric wire, so this is how I made those rivets myself: I cut a groove some 1 inch long in two metal sheets. When those two metal sheets were sandwiched together, the grooves formed a sort of mold for the wire to stay in tight:


Then, using this cup shaped snap...


I shaped the rounded head of the rivets by gently hammering:



Not all the rivets I made this way had a well centered head. I didn't pay attention to this detail and used one of those out-of-center rivets. It was only when the riveting was completed when I noticed the hole was still visible:


So I removed this rivet and replaced it with another one, better centered:


I also flushed the upper spine of the blade with the freshly riveted front bolsters and I glued the copper strip separators (using two parts epoxy for metals). So, this is how the handle looks now, waiting for the stone scales:


Thank you for looking,

Adrian

Feb 29, 2012 12:12:45 GMT -5 adrian65 said:

Hello, friends! I've done it! ;D

Here are some pictures of the stones I choose for the scales. As you will see, I tried to keep the red color theme given by the copper inlays and by the fire agate cab embedded in the bolster. So, here it is:

The main stones - wonderstone:


The same stones on the back - notice the chamfered edges to make room to the (already hardened) epoxy which bonds the knife and the copper strip separators


Putting together all the stones - the smaller ones are a sort of rooster tail jasper (I think):









After this, I ground the stones to the level of the metal parts and then polished all the knife once again. Here it is, viewed from different angles:





The central focus point of the face of the knife is this amazing fire agate. Thank you again Christopher for this beautiful stone!


















I hope you didn't fall asleep like my cat did, after scrolling down so many pictures.

Thank you for looking and for all the support and encouragements during my work.

Adrian

[Deleted]

kk - wow. I was on a bladesmith forum for a few years before here. I saw scores of WIP threads. That is an amazing knife. Every detail, fit and finish are all incredible. No detail missed. Great work

[kk]

Yes I know,.... I had the pleasure to follow Adrian through the process waiting eagerly for every update.

There is still another post about a sword he made. While I have never worked metals, the sword got me hooked on his work.

[tntmom]

I remember this knife! Then again, it is impossible to ever forget anything that Adrian posts!!!!!!

[mohs]

Hi Adrian
I was mentioning your knife today
to fellow who was hobbyist knife maker
His eyes grew large when I told how
you framed the meteorite in the blade
that blade you made is always stuck in my mind
mohs

[sandsman1]

dam Adrian you are one fine craftsman thats an amazing knife -- well done my friend

[Rock Guy 275]

That is a fantastic knife!