Thread: Pendray Wootz blade, natural gems, 18K gold

All done!

This was a project that started as an idea that I pitched to Pete, and then we worked out the details together.
Red, white and blue are of course the colors of the American flag. The red are rubies, the white are gem quality diamonds, and the blue are sapphires. All are natural stones, set in 18K gold settings.

I didn't chisel in my mark like I usually do. Instead, there is a heavy solid gold medallion in the tail, with my mark chiseled in. The medallion and the gems in gold were all created by Belgian jeweler Lies Vancauwenberghe.

The bone is stabilized fossil walrus rib. It was cast in resin to fill up the spongy marrow. The bone was then cut lengthwise to make the scales.

Working with Pendray wootz is always a slightly unnerving experience, because it is literally irreplaceable. There are only a couple of pieces left, and everything needs to be perfect for the pattern to show up: forging, thermal cycling, heat treatment and etching. Each of these has a number of things that can go wrong. Thankfully, I managed not to do anything bad so the pattern came out really nice.