dewey: this is not about working down to a price. this is the level of sleeving work old ed did at the time. more cosmetically perfect work at a higher price was not an option. however, the cost of sleeving this old gh with heavily pitted damascus barrels, was within my projected budget for this restoration project. fact is, i rescued it from a gun butcher in maine, just before he was about to part it out. as it turned out, i sold this gun for little or no profit. but, i did learn a business lesson and made a competitive target shooter very happy.
Using the term "restoration" is wholly inappropriate when referring to work like this.
Sadly, many misapply that word in the "gunsmithing" world.
