Recently I found an old chunk of meteorite in the shop and decided since I haven't done anything with it for some time that I would make some Damascus. One thing to consider when working with meteorite is that it has no carbon so it's best to work with a steel that has enough carbon content so that carbon migration will give you a hardenable Damascus. You will need to use a steel with a high enough percentage of carbon to provide enough carbon for the migration that you're after.
Also, not all meteorite will weld readily. I have always used "Campo de Cielo" which has worked well for me.
Here's a close-up of what I just made. The meteorite is what makes up the four petals of the flower or blossom in the middle of each section of this mosaic. The remainder is W2, 1084 or 15N20.
If you have questions on the process please feel free to ask.
Gary
Wow, that's pretty incredible. Thanks for posting it up.
Jeremy
Jeremy Lindley, Apprentice Smith
Since most meteorites are quite red short, I get around that by slicing them and welding them like a sandwich between two pieces of high carbon steel. That way you don't lose as much of it from flaking or crumbling off.
Since the meteorite is usually gotten in a spherical shape, it's difficult to hold them while slicing off slabs with a band saw. The way that I did this was to make a wooden box just large enough to place the meteorite within. I then filled around the meteorite with Durham's Putty and let it harden. I could then saw through the box with the meteorite inside using a saw fence and get fairly uniform slices.
Making a Damascus from meteorites will be much more work then making a normal billet. The advantage is that they usually have a large nickel content so the contrast in the final billet will be much more than normal. If you look closely at the photo you can see the layers of 15N20 which are much less distinct than the meteorite layers which have 8-10% nickel.
That's good work Gary.
Thanks Jeremy & Lin. I know that most will never work with any meteorite but thought that I would share a few techniques that I have found useful since it is somewhat unique in how it works.
Gary
