TECSHARE has it right, this thread sucks. I also think several of you do not understand what a trust system is and how it works.
Go back and read
this post right here, where I first stumbled across the guy's work. I complimented it, as I did at the start of this thread.
I then expressed confusion about his pricing structure, to which he replied
right here that he actually charges $3k/hr, but $18/hr is the special price for us. Imagine a $3k/hour artisan saying "fuck it, I'll do it for $18/hour, and just try a LOT LESS HARD".
This was obviously taking the piss (Special price on a hand-tailored suit, sir? Just for you...).
Obviously. If anyone reading this believes that a man whose time is worth THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS AN HOUR is going to pick up a chisel for $18/hr, stop reading RIGHT NOW and kill yourself.
At this point, I suspected that if the guy was going to be so blatantly full of shit about how much money he makes, he's probably bullshitting about how much his wood costs, how long his pieces take to make, everything. A cursory examination of the circumstantial evidence (loans for tools, brand-new account but familiar with BFL, making drug paraphernalia on his lathe, etc) combined with the fact that his designs REALLY ARE ACTUALLY QUITE NICE (seriously) but the shapes he cuts out are ACTUALLY EMBARRASSINGLY POOR (for a "master artisan"), combined with the fact that several laser engravers have chimed in to say that they believe the pieces are laser engraved, combined with the fact that the only surfaces not etched are the flat inner and outer edges that can't be lasered, lead me to the most obvious conclusion: that he's in fact a mediocre woodworker and a decent graphic designer, pretending that his laser-cut designs (literally the exact same as pressing "print" in photoshop) are somehow hand-carved.
Any master craftsman would have a portfolio of high-end work to show potential clients. Any craftsman who has been working for more than a few years is a fucking idiot if they don't have a portfolio of their high-end work, including process pictures. My threads are littered with them. But the best this guy can produce is this:
THE FUCKING WOOD CHIPS ARE NOT EVEN THE SAME COLOUR AS THE BLANK.Christ, you people. I'm done.