Editorial body
Every commercial relationship should contain clarity.
What does the work cost?
How long will it take?
What yield is expected?
What happens if the stone breaks?
Excellent questions.
Then there are other questions.
Questions that develop historical charm.
For example:
“Can you afford the cutting?”
Perhaps entirely practical.
Perhaps not.
Either way, years later such a sentence can become unexpectedly funny when the customer turns out to possess rather more material than anticipated.
This is why good service culture is wonderfully boring.
State the price.
Provide the quote.
Take the deposit if required.
Do the work.
There is no need to conduct an archaeological investigation into the client's perceived socioeconomic category.
Commerce functions remarkably well without it.
A further lesson for source:
never allow one cutter to become infrastructure.
Have alternatives.
Excellent craftspeople deserve loyalty.
Dependency is something else entirely.