Thanks all. Helpful stuff. Note: I'm not being a slacker. Quite the opposite. I spent many more hours (days) than I care to admit, taping, twining and shellacking these bars. The bar end plugs are crafted from mezcal corks (as is the lost stem plug). And that was merely phase one of my work: there's now a second layer of tape, carefully cut and twined to reveal the first, etc.
I'm not saying it's the Sistine Chapel.
(But it is.)