http://www.gizapyramid.com/meteorite.htm

Yes, cool, but no picture!
Anyone got a photo?
Lots of pix of the gold dagger from the tomb, but google is letting me down on the iron one :(

Tut held the meteoritic iron dagger with both hands in his groin area, to eternity,... deep within his royal sarcophagus. The gold dagger was at his side. What does this tell you?

Born in Arizona...

King Tut
(Steve Martin)

Now when he was a young man he never thought he'd see (King Tut)
People stand in line to see the boy king (King Tut)
How'd you get so funky (funky Tut)
Then you'd do the monkey
(Born in Arizona moved to Babylonia King Tut)
Now if I'd known the line would form to see him (King Tut)
I'd take up all my money and buy me a museum (King Tut)
Buried with a donkey (funky Tut)
He's my favorite honky
(Born in Arizona moved to Babylonia King Tut)
Dancing by the Nile
Ladies loved the style (waltzing Tut)
Rocking for a mile (walking Tut)
He ate a crockodile
He gave his life for tourism
Golden idol
He's an Egyptian!
They're selling you
Now when I die now don't think I'm a nut
Don't want no fancy funeral just one like old King Tut (King Tut)
He coulda won a grammy (King Tut)
Buried in his jammies
(Born in Arizona moved to Babylonia
Born in Arizona got a condo made of stone-a (sic) King Tut)

Tut's meteoritic dagger has a polished "quartz" handle and butt.

From the pictures I've seen of the blade, there isn't any sort of patterning that you would expect to see if it were pattern welded, or folded for refinement. I think it was melted, cast and then forged.... pretty intense metallurgy/metalsmithing for so long ago.

There's a photo of it in "Damascus Steel" by Sachse, suprisingly lo-res for that book - the quartz pommel is cool.

Meteorite Motivation Link (http://www.despair.com/wishes.html)

:lol

I've heard of this blade but not seen it, 'till now. (http://www.inetsonic.com/KATE/TUT/Layers/b_jewelry.html) Click on the knife for a closer picture.

Here's the placement of the dagger (31.) (http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/tutsmummy.htm)

Here's the gold one. (http://touregypt.net/museum/tutl43.htm)

Now I'm going top have to make some Electrum. (http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/trades/metals.htm)

That was fun. :flame:

Electrum is naturally occurring. You can make a generic electrum by alloying silver with a little gold. I’ve made it before, just melt the gold first, (higher melting point), then melt the silver and let it drop into the molten gold. With a higher gold content it actually becomes "green gold".

Because of the placement of Tut's iron dagger, many scholars beleive it was his most prized possession.

One other possibility with the fabrication of the blade is that they found a whole nickel iron meteorite specimen that was solid enough to make the blade strictly through stock reduction. However, I don't think it's likely, because the blade doesn't show any signs of the natural "Widmanstatten pattern".

If you look at the color of the blade, it is very "dark", almost black in certain areas. Meteoritic iron is usually very "white". Although the dark color could just be a natural patina, to me it suggests that there may be some "carbon" in it. This would go along with the idea of the meteoritic iron being melted... and alloyed. Together with the nickel content of the meteoritic iron this would make an interesting early corrosion resistant "steel" alloy.

It's much easier to find good info on the gold dagger, but the iron one remains very mysterious.

Hey Art!

One nice thing about "green gold", (gold/silver alloy) is that it remains fairly soft and malleable, great to work with, as opposed to "red gold", (gold/copper alloy). Copper has the effect of making the gold hard and brittle, as it does with silver and with iron.

The problem I've had with green gold is that it's hard to sell, because it is more pale than red or yellow gold. If you try green gold, go for a rich alloy, like 20 carat or so.

I've got 10 ga. 18 k green gold earrings. They are brassy looking. They ring like a bell!

Mostly I would just enjoy saying "It's Electrum." ;)

I would doubt that the meteoric dagger was made by stock reduction just because I have a meteorite with 6-7% nickel (Campo del Cielo,) and #### if I couldn't cut that MoFo with any tools at my disposal... also very crumbly when forged. I still need to smelt it down and make some damascus for the guy who gave it to me. (Furrer suggested adding some carbon.)

As a side note- the meteor I have came from the "Field of Heaven," and I suspect that this is because the Spaniards who worked the material noticed that it was essentially stainless steel.

I've got 10 ga. 18 k green gold earrings. They are brassy looking. They ring like a bell!

Mostly I would just enjoy saying "It's Electrum." ;)

I would doubt that the meteoric dagger was made by stock reduction just because I have a meteorite with 6-7% nickel (Campo del Cielo,) and #### if I couldn't cut that MoFo with any tools at my disposal... also very crumbly when forged. I still need to smelt it down and make some damascus for the guy who gave it to me. (Furrer suggested adding some carbon.)

As a side note- the meteor I have came from the "Field of Heaven," and I suspect that this is because the Spaniards who worked the material noticed that it was essentially stainless steel.

You can call it "electrum", just add a little gold instead of copper to your silver. The gold will have the same basic effect on the silver as the copper and make it a bit harder, more brittle. However, unlike the copper the gold will make the silver more tarnish resistant.

As a side note- the meteor I have came from the "Field of Heaven," and I suspect that this is because the Spaniards who worked the material noticed that it was essentially stainless steel.

I read somewhere that the Spaniards called it by the translated Native American name for the place, and it was inferred that the Native name resulted from it being a witnessed fall.
I'll see if I can dig up the reference.

I read somewhere that the Spaniards called it by the translated Native American name for the place, and it was inferred that the Native name resulted from it being a witnessed fall.

That would make a lot of sense...

Dudes, meteoritic iron was "archetypically" considered "heavenly", (white not black),... and man made smelted iron was considered "earthly", or less noble.

The blade may represent the union between the heavenly and the earthly!

You have to try and look at it from their perspective.

Gotta love Google Scholar -

"The written history of discovery at Campo del Cielo dates from the earliest times of the Spanish conquest. After successfully defeating the Pizarro brothers in1548, armies of the regent of Peru were granted land as spoils of war in what is now Argentina and Chile. In their single-minded search for gold and silver, the conquistadores were told of legends among the natives of the Chaco region that described the fall of a large piece of iron from the sky. Disbelieving this legend and hoping that it might be a deposit of silver, Spanish explorers induced the natives to lead them to it. In 1576, a Spanish expedition was led along a well-developed trail system used by the meleros ( honey-gatherers). The object of the expedition was located on the flat, semi-arid Chaco plains in a field known as Piguem Nonraltá or, in Spanish, Campo del Cielo (Field of the Sky)."

From:
“Discovering research value in the Campo del Cielo, Argentina, meteorite craters”
Cassidy, William A.; Renard, Marc L., in Meteoritics, vol. 31, pages 433-448. 07/1996

Dudes, meteoritic iron was "archetypically" considered "heavenly", (white not black),... and man made smelted iron was considered "earthly", or less noble.

The blade may represent the union between the heavenly and the earthly!

Word, Bro. Why else do it? I want to smelt Vermont ore and damascus it with meteorite for the Second Vermont Republic Sword of Office.
-------

Nice work, Jeff!

Funny that it is called the "Chaco," region. I was just visiting my folks in New Mexico and reading up on some of the conquistadores and their misadventures.

Tai, if I ever have the cash flow to keep a 'cycle at my folks' place I'll ride on over.

K...

"Buried with a donkey (funky Tut)
He's my favorite honky" :)

Hey! did you see in National Geographic, where they reconstructed the boy king's face?

... NOT your average looking mug!

She's digging up the graveyard,
Black lips and toenails.
Brand new bat wing-
At the county jail.
Like Tammy Trapeze,
The dead acrobat-
I dig her deeply when she swings like that!

Sheena's in a goth gang
Sheena's in a goth gang
Sheena's in a goth gang now.

Mixed up women
Do you have one in your house?
She's in the forbidden
Vampire underground.
In the Cult of the Cobra
Snakes in her hair
She looks so macabre with her cobweb stare!

Sheena's in a goth gang
Sheena's in a goth gang
Sheena's in a goth gang now.

Sneer on her face,
Like the Mona Lisa-
Cold hole in her nose
Like the Sphinx at Giza!

Sheena's in a goth gang
Sheena's in a goth gang
Sheena's in a goth gang now...

... For real?

The Cramps, bro! What else do ya think happens to old Punk rockers?

...And I think that Mona Lisa / Sphinx at Giza rhyme is a classic.

... you for real?

Deys woims in my sarcophagus turducken! :mod: