Seymchan Knife Blade #460

Description

A masterful, impressive work combining steel, meteoritic iron, dinosaur bone, and gemstones. The blade is Seymchan meteorite, first discovered during the summer of 1967 by the Russian geologist F. A. Mednikov. In the early 2000s, meteorite hunters associated with the Vernadsky Institute in Moscow returned to the find site in the hope of finding additional specimens. They did and were amazed to discover not iron meteorites, but pallasites — stony-iron meteorites encrusted with olivine crystals. Their finds resulted in a rare classification change in the scientific literature: in 2007 van Niekerk et al. revised the designation for Seymchan from iron to pallasite.

Seymchan has an unusual structure: some areas display olivine-rich clusters, while others consist almost entirely of nickel-iron. The blade in this piece contains visible schreibersite, which is only found in material from outer space and in one location on Earth, Disko Island in Greenland. The metal in this meteorite consists of two nickel-iron alloys — taenite and kamacite. As a result of very slow cooling in space, these alloys typically form into a complex interlocking crystalline motif known as the Widmanstätten Pattern, named after Count Alois von Beckh Widmanstätten who recorded the phenomenon while experimenting with iron meteorites during the 19th Century. Widmanstätten Patterns are typically visible only after iron meteorites have been carefully prepared in the laboratory by cutting and polishing, followed by an etching of the cut surfaces with a volatile solution of alcohol and nitric acid.

The blade extends to the finger guard, where it has been welded to steel. The handle displays rare “gem” dinosaur bone, called gembone, which is approximately 145-200 million years old and one of the most rare and beautiful fossils in the world. After millions of years of being buried, the original organic material in dinosaur bone is replaced with minerals like quartz and chalcedony. Like many meteorites, gembone’s allure is most apparent when it’s been cut and polished, allowing its unique colors and patterns to shine.

This knife is finished with fine details like a stainless steel guard and bolsters.