Hi Troy, welcome to our forum.

The craftsmanship looks very nice. I don't know the Boucher history well enough to comment on its Civil War appropriateness, which doesn't matter to me anyway, but does to many in this group.

In that regard, somebody has alleged that the shield bracket is a Union thang. Would a southern banjoist have cared? I'm thinking, the CSA used all kinds of US symbols, e.g. one side of coins from the New Orleans mint. Whatever. I've also idly wondered when the spread eagle brackets came into use, as in the Pollman banjo catalog from the 1890s illustrated in Ring the Banjar, p. 19. I have a few of those I want to use sometime. (They don't say "Union Forever.")

The square peg (and hole) -- round perch pole trick is a nice touch. Looks like something that would have been a pain to make.

Does it ever make you dizzy to look at alternating waves of light reflected in the curly maple?

Dick Hulan