What would a sword made of meteoric iron look like?

[Peter Knutsen]

Swords made of normal medieval iron alloys are "metallic in colour". So that's the baseline, that's what you'd expect a sword to look like. How you'd expect it to shine. Anything unusual, such as bronze, or silver, will look and shine differently.

I know that in the real world, meteoric iron (AFAIK iron with rather a significant amount of nickel in it) isn't really well suited to making swords and other war-gear, but I've decided that it is well suited for the task in my Ärth setting, because it's mythologically appropriate. In game terms, meteoric iron is as well suited as renaissance-grade steel, although the two alloys requires different familiarities to work with.

But would you be able to see that a sword is made from meteoric iron, rather than normal medieval steel or renaissance steel?

I think Tolkien at one point, in "Silmarillion", describes some sword or mail hauberk made of meteoric iron as "black" or "dark", but I don't think he really knows much about metallurgy.

Will worked meteoric iron look like normal iron?

[Dalillama]

Apparently it looks like this.

[Anthony]

Meteoric iron would look just like ordinary iron: a varying shade of grey depending mostly on carbon content and to a lesser degree on what else might be mixed in.

[Icelander]

And because it's appropriate, here's some 'Metallurgy' for beginners.

[gjc8]

Not exactly my field, but my first guess is that once you're finished working it, adding the carbon, etc, it will look much like ordinary steel.

But if you're throwing out strict metallurgic realism in favor of mythological appropriateness anyway...
A certain type of iron meteorite, when treated, forms a pattern that's rather visually striking. Again, metallurgy is not my field, but I suspect the realistic chance of the recognizable lamellar structure surviving working is low. And the discovery of that structure is anachronistic based on actual history, though apparently all it requires is nitric acid, which would be known to renaissance alchemists. But it does look cool.

[Anders]

A blade made from meteoric iron would look cool. Pitch black, probably.

[Dammann]

My wedding band is meteoric iron (backed by titanium) with the Widmanstätten pattern. Since it looks awesome, I have invoked the rule of cool in my DF to determine that all meteoric iron stuff looks more or less like that. But yeah, IRL, by the time you actually produce decent steel from it, it would probably look like regular steel.

[DanHoward]

Yes it would look pretty much like regular steel but it would be very rare to find a meteorite with just the right level of impurities to make a functional sword. Most would be too brittle.

[jeff_wilson]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

Yes it would look pretty much like regular steel but it would be very rare to find a meteorite with just the right level of impurities to make a functional sword. Most would be too brittle.

Would a flanged mace or an axe be okay?

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by DanHoward

Yes it would look pretty much like regular steel but it would be very rare to find a meteorite with just the right level of impurities to make a functional sword. Most would be too brittle.

Which brings up the question of just how much meteoric iron you need to have in your meteoric iron item, since it's not like alloying is impossible.