Bison Skull Bolo

Ever since I finished my Mountain Tapestry bolo I have wanted to push my inlay technique further in a design and have been struck with an iconic image of the West, a skull in the desert, bleached and sunbaked, resting on a sandstone mesa. This bolo is the very special realization of that dream-like image in my mind. In this piece I worked with some sketches of a Bison skull and paired that with a stunning piece of Star Fox Variscite set in 14k gold. I started with a billet of the best quality hardened damascus in the world, Damasteel from Sweden. I carefully forged the metal on my 150 ton hydraulic press and then annealed it in a kiln multiple times to get the damascus to a workable piece a bit bigger than the finished bolo. After machining the blank to a nice flat, square, and clean piece, I used my CNC mill to cut inlay channels of both .031" wide and .02" wide. After machining, I crafted a gold bezel for the stone, fit it to the bolo, and did a preliminary sanding of surfaces. I the