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A rare piece. Top carvers rarely mess with the "total panel" thing because it's so time consuming to get exactly right. Meaning they have to choose between losing money or dinging their reputation. Once in a while (maybe a commission?) they appear, though, unicorn style:

That’s immaculate work. I definitely would turn that work in your direction. Your patience must rival that of the person who writes the alphabet on a grain of rice.


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Holy Moly! I love panels, but they are a royal pain to make and an even more royal pain to repair. Excellent work, as usual.

Perfect.

A really well done panel is my favorite. It's my unicorn pipe. Hope to find one for myself one day that's not a million bucks. Absolutely stellar work, George. I truly believe you are the best at what you do.

Excellent work George. It reminds me of a documentary I watched about the experts who restore/repair works of art by da Vinci. Just thinking about getting a file anywhere near that shank makes me pucker. I really admire your steady hands and nerves of steel.

George, your stem work fills me with despair! It is good for a beginner to have something to aim for but I can't imagine making a stem that fine. Time to watch more of your videos.

Looking at the comparison of the two stems, I see that George’s effort is much more precise and crisp. The gleam lines marking the boundary of the side panels to the top are dead straight while those of the original are curved outward, indicating some belly in the mid stem. The boundaries are also sharper/cleaner indicating more care with the sanding and buffing.
All in all, the new stem fits the crisp lines of the stummel better that the original.
Awesome work, George.
DocAitch

Doc -- Just today I was lamenting that so few people notice the small stuff while I am powerless to ignore it. (There's a fair amount of curse built into such hardwiring... the primary payback is that the satisfaction of pulling it off on especially tough cases is inversely proportional to the despair.)

Thanks for applying your doctor's eye, Doc.

LatakiaLover wrote: ↑Mon Jul 22, 2019 4:20 pm A rare piece. Top carvers rarely mess with the "total panel" thing because it's so time consuming to get exactly right. Meaning they have to choose between losing money or dinging their reputation. Once in a while (maybe a commission?) they appear, though, unicorn style:

Here's another unicorn by a different top maker.

I actually like the Bang better than this one, but the difficulty is the same.

Current bid is over $2K with a week to go:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/373957580621?h ... SwUmZiH6Je