novocaine
Old School Grand Master
If you’re happy to wait the wait then they crop up cheap every now and then. Mine is an ancient Cyclo, was missing part of the clamp but came with 3 sizes of die in good condition for £30. I’ve seen a mega expensive Hozan go quickly for £45.
CRC were clearing out spokes a while back cheap and I bought a load. Bankrupt bike parts did have loads of stainless at good prices on their website.
I’d go for good value spokes over cutting and rolling any day and I’ve only ever done a handful of cutting/rolling. I only got it for those instances where you need one spoke and I didn’t want to buy a whole pack of pay £5 a spoke for singles!
Rolling your own is useful for weird sizes, like radial 20 wheels or large flange to 20 was another it came in handy (also had a load of odd sizes sat in the box of bits) otherwise, agreed, fresh spokes are my preferred.