[Vodkaman]

You are not doing yourself or anyone else in the hand made industry by selling yourself short. The way I look at it personally, is that my time and effort is worth a dollar figure per hour, the number that my previous employer paid me is a good starting point. That is the number that I am looking for. Now I would accept slightly less, as I would be working to my own terms and enjoying my work for the very first time in my life.

In many cases, the buying public (even members of this site!) needs educating as to what is involved in making these piscatorial masterpieces. If they want personalised quality, individual fine tuning etc, then it has to be paid for. We are not competing with rapala and the big boys, we provide a superior product. The big boys are competing with us.

Daimai, a 5% difference in the hand carving volume can make a big difference. Carving to this accuracy is about the limit. So you are right, if you are looking for a specific result, like a slow sinker or floater, each one will have to be individually tuned for ballast. I estimate a required accuracy of +/- 0.5% for making suspended (or close to) lures. This fits in with the above discussion. I am thinking of offering a suspended lure option, guaranteed to rise or fall within x seconds per foot. But for this level of fine tuning, the cost would increase significantly.