Artist Tristan Dare's propensity for forging rare and storied materials into functional, culinary art is on full display in the Descent Meteorite Petty Chef. All matter in the known universe, as they say, is little more than stardust, consisting of the most ancient elements, the building blocks of life, the source of all the natural world, thus connecting us all more deeply that we are often able to contemplate. The very study of worlds beyond our own is represented as well in this chef's knife that includes the reclaimed material of an early 1990's US Department of Defense space shuttle launch. More on that later. In this one-of-a-kind work by the young, visionary craftsperson from Idaho, ingredients such as the Muonionalusta Meteorite and pure gold, each of which outdate the formation of Earth, are found throughout the 171mm / 6.7" blade alongside additional metallic components including iron, carbon, chromium, nickel, sulfur, phosphorous, manganese, and others, resulting in an object unlike any that has come before (pre-Earth or otherwise). Before being discovered in Scandinavia in 1906 near the border of Sweden and Finland, the Muonionalusta is thought to have traveled through the solar system at fantastic speed for over 4.56 billion years before impacting our planet approximately one million years ago. It is one of the oldest meteorites to have been found by humans. Combined with 15n20 and 1095 high-carbons steels, the Muonionalusta is the third and final edition with which Tristan creates his Stardust damascus steel from which the stunning blade is formed. Rough and rustically hewn along the flats where the hammer marks of its hand-forged origins remain, the blade includes voids as though minute particles moving at speed through the vacuum of space have pierced its armor. Below, high-polished, wonderfully convex primary bevels slim downward to a sharp, sturdy cutting edge with a relatively flat profile that will excel at any number of slicing tasks in the kitchen. The knife's exquisite handle, comfortable and weighted in an aesthetic that combines man-made shapes with surfaces that appear to have been worn by more powerful, cosmic forces, is shaped from a stainless steel alloy repurposed from the large keel pin of a object that contained the black box in the cabin of the AFP-675 Space Shuttle. This craft was launched on April 28th, 1991, orbiting Earth for eight days, seven hours, 22 minutes, and 23 seconds, returning to the Kennedy Space Center after a successful mission. Helping to pave the way for the development of technologies that would go on to perform crucial scientific work, the craft performed infrared imaging and environmental studies. With this piece of history in hand, a connection to worlds beyond our own as felt in every cut.
