Weapons Forged from Meteoric Iron

CNET has an article, of which an excerpt may be found below, on historical weapons forged from meteoric iron. The full post may be read here.

 

Myth is littered with legendary swords. Durandal. Kusanagi. Legbiter. Excalibur. Joyeuse. Different factors make these weapons extraordinary, but if we had to choose, we'd definitely go for a sword made of meteoric iron.

It's not as unusual an idea as it sounds. Throughout history, blades have been forged from chunks of metal fallen from the skies -- often smelted together with terrestrial metals, then acid-etched, creating a patterned surface reminiscent of Damascus steel. This pattern is due to the nickel content in meteoric iron, which gives it a more silvery colour and sheen than terrestrial iron; folded together, they create an effect known as pattern welding.

In fact, the oldest surviving human-made iron artefacts -- 5,000-year-old beads from Gerzeh, Egypt -- were made from hammered meteoric iron.

Today, modern blacksmiths are still following the tradition: a blacksmith from historical re-enactment group ASBL Lucilinburhuc created a sword incorporating a chunk of ataxite -- a type of meteorite with an unusually high proportion of nickel, at least 18 percent.

The sword was a commission from a client, who gave the meteorite to the blacksmith to make the sword. The process is a long and involved one -- the sword took around three months to make. You can watch 20-minute short film about the sword's creation on the ASBL Lucilinburhuc YouTube page.