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Originally Posted by Timo Nieminen
There are plenty of examples of non-laminated meteoric iron blades, notably cold-forged blades. However, those are usually small. I don't know of any the size of Tutankhamun's dagger (21cm long blade).
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Timo, thank you for noting the important fact that non-forged examples of meteoritic items are usually very small. This seems to be a common finding of that time period.
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Reading further I find: the other meteoric iron objects from Tutankhamun's grave are cold-forged.
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I think that is a key part of the mystery, and the unresolved question about the state of Egyptian iron work at that time.
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Apparently the dagger is the exception. The dagger blade is also possibly (probably?) not Egyptian in origin, but might be one of the iron blades given to Amenhotep III (Tutankhamun's grandfather (probably)), by King Tushratta of the Mittanni.
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Possibly, but again we are into the realm of speculation. The historic records do not allow us to claim with any confidence that this dagger was a gift from another culture to Tutankhamun or one of his ancestors, or whether it was actually of Egyptian manufacture. We are talking about one of the earliest examples of an iron knife that has survived in a remarkable state of preservation, and I find it frustrating that we know so little about who made it.