Hi Brett, I replaced the wooden nut on my Jagard lap steel (same body as your Artisan) with a brass one and also modified the bridge arrangement. I used a very simple design for the nut which is screwed to the lap steel body. As I don't have the files for cutting the slots I had the nut made for me as well as most of the bridge parts. As Tony suggested, small quantities of brass and aluminium are available on ebay and are easily fabricated if you have the tools and ability. The dimensions I used for the nut are: Height at front = 15mm, Height at rear = 14mm, Thickness = 6mm, Overall width = 56mm. The nut is quite thick provide some mechanical stability as it's not located in a slot and I didn't want to use a piece of angled material. I also sloped the top of the nut to ease the break angle of the strings. You may of course prefer different measurements. If you have yet to embark on the project I wish you every success.