Master cutting extravagantly encased gold inlay on steel (9)
I believe the answer is:
damascene
'gold inlay on steel' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.
'master cutting extravagantly encased' is the wordplay.
'master' becomes 'ma' (Master of Arts).
'cutting' is an insertion indicator (some letters cut their way into a word).
'extravagantly' indicates an anagram (an unusual or extravagant version of the letters).
'encased' is an anagram of 'dascene'.
'ma' placed inside 'dascene' is 'DAMASCENE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for damascene that I've seen before include "Rich ornamentation on metal" , "gold inlay" , "Middle Easterner" , "steely ornamentation" , "of very ancient city" .)