When you are talking about the upper echelon of builders all our work is very, very good. Sasha is to be included as he has shown himself to be a ultra high quality builder and he reached that level quickly.

As a builder myself, I sometimes look at things that would not catch other customers eyes. Quality construction, good design and alignment is a given of course but other things that I look for are, in no particular order.

Clean brazing. Are any of the lug edges washed out from filler,
Clean sharp lines to the lug, no blown out edges
Thinning of the lug? Is it properly thinned and filed or is it left in its full thickness state?
clean internal filing
Sharp seat stay miters. Are the seat stay terminations cast plugs or are they handmade? Are they nice and clean with sharp lines or nearly filleted.
Drop out terminations.. Are they hand made or plug on/plug in models. The builder can express their creativity here. I give extra points for that.

These are just a few things I look for

Getting on to stainless, Dazza technique is beyond reproach. He has a high luster and maintains a nice sharp lug edge which is very hard to do.

I don't do as much stainless work as I used too. Mainly to do a top quality job is something that few customer are willing to pay enough for. Also it makes painting much more difficult and can be hard to maintain over a long period. I started doing the stainless bit so many years ago becuase I wanted the Chrome look without some of the disadvantages that chrome represents (and there are a lot).

All the best,

Dave Bohm
Bohemian Bicycles