This young knife maker is Bladesmith Tristan Dare, from Idaho, USA. For the past 5 years, he has been crafting artistic swords. Interestingly, he often incorporates ancient materials into his blades. His latest work, called Nebula (Nebula), was created from one of the oldest meteorites ever recorded, decorated with opal, gold and an ancient mammoth tusk.
At the beginning of 2022, Dare bought the meteorite Muonionalusta from Germany and started forging this beautiful sword with a water pattern. The Muonionalusta meteorite is more than 4.5 billion years old and is one of the oldest meteorites. It hit the Earth 1 million years ago, contained a liquid iron core and cooled down after 4 ice ages until it was discovered in 1906. Currently, there are only about 40 fragments left in the world, the cost is quite high.
Dare did not disclose how much he spent on forging the Nebula sword, but he said it cost several thousand dollars to buy the materials.
The iron crystals on this meteorite have perfectly symmetrical octahedral molecular patterns. These natural patterns often disappear during the fire-forging process, but Dare says he has found a way to keep them.
“These patterns are preserved in all the octahedral swords I have forged,” he said. As far as I know, there are less than 10 people in the world who can do this right now.”
He forges his knives at a temperature close to the melting point of steel, around 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit (1,200 degrees Celsius), combining black steel with shiny nickel to form a beautiful flowing water figure of graceful beauty.
Dare decorated the hilt with a 20,000-year-old mammoth ivory, placed several opals along the Nebula blade to represent the stars inside the “Nebula”, and added 24 karat gold to the blade. to increase the splendor.
Nebula will be auctioned in October or November. Dare hopes collectors who own this treasure will value the story behind Nebula and its beautiful materials, “making it an heirloom that will be passed down from generation to generation.”