Kate wrote:
Hi Chris,
I think it's very nice. I am quite impressed with your carving.

I hope that I won't offend you but when I looked at it I thought two things:
1) I would have made it just a wee bit wider so that the ends of the scope
could be seen easily.
Maybe add two or three inches on each side.
2) I would have used a mix of dark mahogany and black and rubbed it into the
ship and the crevices of the unit to give it an antiqued look.
It would really give the ship some punch and would age the unit so it didn't
look so new.

One other thing, usually when a person cleans an item like this, it really
diminishes the value of the piece. If left in it's original condition it's
somehow more desirable and therefore more valuable.

No offence taken. I appreciate the creative criticism; that's how we learn.
In answer, the scope is actually about 4 inches shorter when fully
compressed. I pulled it out a bit (after the design) to expose some
engraving on the inner tube.

Now that you mention it, using some dark or black "filler" on the pores
would have added a lot to it. Thanks for the suggestion; I hadn't
thought of that. I don't use mahogany a lot and now I remember that Norm
always seems to add it. However, in most of my pieces I try to work with
the grain to expose and highlight it. After putting a coat of BLO on the
piece and seeing the grain shimmer, I'm not sure if I could have
darkened it with filler anyway. But, something to keep in mind.

On cleaning, I specifically asked the owner about that. I didn't want to
do anything to it to "de-value" the piece. But she actually said she
wanted it cleaned. Now, I didn't remove any 'finish', I just polished
the brass and sewed the leather sheath back together so I'm not sure I
did enough to actually take away from it's value. I'm sure in a few
years it'll look the exactly same way!

Thanks again for the suggestions.