[Steve]

Thanks, everyone.

TWITHERS: We grind the blade and polish it to final tolerances, we also shape the guard, sub-hilt and rear bolster area and then assemble the handle and finish it. Basically, we make a knife that is not heat treated. Then I dis-assembled the handles pieces and Barry made all of the necessary cuts for inlaying the gold and engraved the background. We then sent the blade to Peters' Heat treating and Brad Stallsmith heat treated the whole thing keeping the finish as clean as possible, so that it took very little effort to bring the polish back up at Barry's studio. Barry then brought it to my shop where I re-installed the handle panels with hidden pins. At this point, Barry had already done some of the inlay cuts in the MOP, but not all. After re-assembly, he finished inlaying the gold on all parts of the knife & cuts in the MOP; then, of course he had to make the many cuts in the gold to sculpt the leaves, stems and inlay the diamonds. To say that it took a looooonnnngggg time is an understatement! So, he never cut into the steel after heat treat, all was done before the blade was hardened.