Very valid point; one of the reasons I joined the forum was in the hope that there would be good information here and sources that would allow more relevant research to be done. The old saw that "In theory, theory and practice are the same; but in practice, theory and practice are very different." We have the "what should be the case" and then we have the anecdotal, empirical data. My caution stemmed from readings that indicated that the process was not uniformly practiced, so damascening was not necessarily a guarantee of high quality, but rather that quality was a function of the particular practitioner. And since I could not find a whit of information about the Barlow I had bought, I felt it important to go back to first principles and experience in other areas, as well as what other cautionary tales I came across. And I bought the Barlow before the Internet, so those tales were few and far between. The feedback of the collective wisdom of this community is welcome.
