Just saw a photo of that katana made of space rock and I’m curious to know if it’s a better weapon than those made of metal. Also, what is the ideal Earth element that is best suited for swords? Thank you.
In: Geology
Iron meteorites are notoriously difficult to forge, because of impurities (many other metal and non-metal elements may be present.). If you managed to forge one, you’d have no way of guaranteeing the reliability, flexibility and strength of the sword. And if it didn’t have the right % of carbon in it (or added), it wouldn’t hold an edge very well. A lot of swords and knives you see that are labelled as “meteorite” are one of two options:
– they have bits of meteorite mixed in with normal powdered steel, which is forged together in a cannister and then cut and reforged a few times to give an interesting visual pattern, reinforcing the “exotic meteorite look”. It’s the equivalent of “mango juice” where only 3% is mango and the rest is apple and water. These are for display use mostly.
– You can melt and refine the iron in the meteorite, purify it to remove unwanted impurities and then add carbon to have good enough quality steel for a functional blade. But the time, cost and effort needed for this is off the scale for the end product. It also won’t look like anything special, so what’s the point?
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