In the summer of 2006 a
high school student, Kevin
Gray (MetE 11), did something
that could have landed him in trouble. He toured the Mines campus with an eight-inch knife in his backpack. Gray had no malicious intent,
rather he was excited to show
the Damascus steel blade that he had forged in
his garage to a professor of metallurgy. Little did Gray know that his actions would spark a series
of events that would change
the face of the Department of Materials and Metallurgical
Engineering at Mines and earn the program international
acclaim.
At the end of the tour for prospective students, Jon Kellar
PhD, (MetE 84), who was department head at the time, asked Gray why he was
interested in Mines. “He pulled this knife wrapped in cloth out of his
backpack,” says Kellar. Damascus steel blades have been around for centuries.
They’re easy to identify by the swirled steel patterns that result from a
labor-intensive process of repeatedly heating, hammering, and folding the
steel. Kellar became intrigued. “We were low on student enrollment at the
time,” he says, “We were trying to find a solution, and this seemed like a good
way to outreach.” Kellar and professors Dana Medlin, PhD, and Michael West,
PhD, developed a plan to integrate more hands-on experiences into the
curriculum. Students could make items out of metal, like Damascus steel blades,
and study the scientific properties of the steel they were working along the
way.
...