This very pen was featured
in an article in Best Life
Long, long ago, there
was a meteoroid—a huge mass of metallic material from
the heart of an asteroid—that traced a path toward Earth.
Its violent entry into Earth’s atmosphere caused it
to break into thousands of blazing pieces and fall to Africa’s
Namibian desert. It would lie undiscovered in the desert until
1838, and it would be roughly another 170 years before some
of it’s pieces would make 
their
way into pens crafted by Grayson Tighe.
Grayson Tighe, a young
pen maker known for his use of unusual materials, has created
a one-of-a-kind pen made from fragments of the famed Gibeon
Meteorite, with a limited edition of meteorite pens to follow.
The Gibeon Meteorite has been radio metrically dated at a
bout four billion years old. Scientists say it fell to earth
in prehistoric times; the “strewn field” covers
an area of 70X230 miles, making it one of the largest meteorite
fall areas known. The pieces range from tiny (one gram) to
very large---one of the largest masses recovered from the
site weighed over 1,400 pounds.
Gibeon meteorite pieces
are composed of iron, nickel, and small amounts of cobalt.
What is it like to work with? “It works like stainless
steel,” says Tighe, “but with the impurities,
it’s tough on tools because of the uneven dispersion
of iron, nickel. Etc. It’s very difficult to get a good
yield out of a meteorite specimen due to its irregular shape,
so much of it is scrap.” Tighe initially purchased a
fifteen pound specimen very expensive, as meteorite material
is sold by the gram and found the yield disappointing because
of hollow places in its interior. His next purchase was a
30-pound piece.
The portion of the pen’s
barrel that is made of meteorite material is easy to recognize
because of its “Widmanstatten patterns,” a distinctive
cross-hatched pattern that is peculiar to meteoric material
Tighe explains, “Most meteorites with high iron content
were formed in the cores of asteroids at temperatures above
2,500 degrees, so they were completely molten. Very slowly,
the liquid metal cooled and crystallized, and in some cases,
two alloys taenite and kamacite—formed slightly different
crystal structures that grew into and over each other, creating
intricate designs. The pattern can be made more visible by
etching the material with dilute nitric acid.” The rest
of the pen’s body is made of stainless steel.
By Laura Chandler
Tighe’s upcoming
limited edition of meteorite pens will comprise 18 Fountain
pens and
18 rollerballs. The fountain pen will come with
an 18 karat gold nib in fine, medium or broad. The estimated
MSRP is US $7,500 for the fountain pen and $7,400 for the
rollerball.
Location, location, location
That’s not merely a real estate agent’s mantra.
The correct terminology for a meteorit
e depends upon where it happens to be. Before
it enters Earth’s atmosphere, it’s a meteor. It
can’t properly be called a meteorite until it reaches
Earth’s surface.
Know your meteorite
Iron-rich meteorites are classified into three types based
upon their nickel content and the structure elements interact.
Here’s a summary. Hexahedrites contain the smallest
amount of nickel—5.2 to 5.8 % by weight. They are single
crystals with no grain boundaries. Octahedrites contain more
nickel about 5.5 to 7.5 % by weight. Some of these have distinct
coarse or fine grain patterns. The Gibeon meteorite used in
Grayson Tighe’s pen is a fine octahedrite. Ataxites
contain the greatest amount of nickel up to 18 %. It’s
grains are small and uniform in size, so this meteor lacks
dramatic pattern. Very few examples of this type of meteorite
have been found.
Source: “Metallography
of Iron Meteorites,” Advanced Materials & Processes,
Febuary 2001.
Materials:
Location: Gibeon Namibia. (Latitude 25º, 20ºS, Longitude
18ºE)
Time of Fall: In prehistoric
times
Structural Class: Fine octahedrite,
Og, Widmanstatten bandwidth 0.3_ 0.5mm
Chemical Class: Group IVA
(91% Fe, 7.93% Ni, 0.41% Co, 0.04% P, 2.0 ppm Ga, 0.12ppm
Ge, 2.3 ppm Ir.)
)