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Our stay in Cambodia was short.  One night in Phnom Penh and then 4 nights in Siem Reap.  There were a few places scheduled for our brief stay in Phnom Penh including the Citadel Knife factory, the Royal Palace and the National Museum.  However, a slight monkey wrench was thrown into the plans.  We were arriving on Tuesday, January 30.  The next day was a national holiday and both the knife factory and Royal Palace would be closed.  We decided to start with the knife factory and then on to the Palace hopefully before it closed 

Before visiting the factory, we had to make a brief stop at the Citadel store in town.  Apparently this was a prerequisite for a factory visit.  Getting to the factory was a real adventure.  It was located out near the airport.  There was a lot of road construction on the way to the airport and then when we turned off the main road to get to the factory the street was completely torn up.  It was a real obstacle course.  With a little backtracking, detouring, and a lot of careful driving we made it to the "factory".  The "factory" turned out to be more like a collection of "garage" workshops where craftsmen were turning out hand made products.
The process starts with heating the steel so it can be hammered into shape.  Once the blade has been shaped, it is ground and sharpened to meet the specifications of the particular project.
The handle and the scabbard have to be made to fit the particular piece.  Citadel produces a wide variety of knives but a specialty is the Katana or Samurai sword. 
Below are three samples of some smaller knives.

   Click HERE to see a video of the process.

After the Citadel factory, we headed back to central Phnom Penh to see the Royal Palace before it closed.  We made it but not too much time to spare.  We wandered around the Palace grounds which are extraordinarily beautiful..  Unfortunately, I did something with the card I was using to record my pictures  As a result, I lost a number of GOOD pictures of the Palace.  However, I was able to salvage the 7 pictures below which illustrate the beauty of the Palace.