New Knife Completion: the "Radioactive Toy" Benchmade 425S Prototype

Recently I managed to win a Benchmade 425 prototype off eBay and decided this would be the perfect knife for a Moonglow rescale.  Recently Moonglow has become a really popular acrylic substitute for traditional G10, metal or wood handles, but it's also a pretty rare and hard to get material.  I had just enough to knock this rescale out, but this knife represents the last of my Moonglow stock.

The 425 is designed by Mike Snody, and while Snody is an excellent designer, I think the handles could have been a little more interesting on this particular knife.  Don't get me wrong, black G10 is great, but Moonglow is so much cooler, don't you agree?

I had to be very careful when I was working on this knife; Prototypes are VERY collectable, and when it comes to Benchmades, the 425 is one of the most popular.  Taking special pains to make sure the original hardware and knife remained unscathed during my build, I carefully made the Moonglow scales by tracing the existing scales onto my Moonglow sheet and ground each scale to fit exactly into place.  Then I finished the scales by sculpting them first with 60 grit belts and later hand sanded the scales out to 220 then 600 grit and finally with a scotchbrite pad to help make the scales nice and satin finished.  I think the results speak for themselves, eh?