Thanks Roger (& all others) for the welcome.
from all I read here, I wasn't really too worried, I just didn't want to be taken wrongly as a godless heathen. I don't feel that laser has
any place on firearms or other 'fine objects' at all (personal opinion, ymmv
) it's the human touch that creates the element of beauty in all artistic mediums. technology can never produce art (or really even properly reproduce it), only the poor imitation of it.
that said, what I do like about the laser is the ability to cut and contour materials that would not stand up to a physical tool. I've inlaid contrasting papers into one another, creating a knot work pattern that I know I could not have done any other way. made 1/32" square dovetail joints in 1/32" and 1/64" micro-ply for cigarette boxes and gum cases. or a scale model of the wright brother's biplane with a 5" wingspan made of paper. but I've never seen anything made with a laser that I would consider artistic, just a clever use of the laser process.
the true art displayed here is in a class of it's own. to be able to render scenes with the depth and realism shown on this site with simply a graver is the hight of artistic and craft ability. there are those who would try to equate the effect achieved by laser with that ability, I just wanted you all to know I'm not among them.
