What Contitutes Hand Made or Hand Crafted

[brianhabby]

Hi there, just looking for a consensus on this one.

What would you say constitutes hand made or hand crafted. For example, if my wife knits a sweater, I would class that as hand made even though she has used some tools (knitting needles).

However, what about my wooden boxes. If I cut everything out using a hand saw and hand chisels etc, then I would also class that as hand made. But what if I used a bandsaw to cut out the pieces and maybe even a powered sander to help with the finishing.

What do you guys think?

regards

Brian

 

[twothumbs]

Hand made for me. Going to a conclusion...would you have to cut the tree down with an axe...and carry it home on your shoulder. It is not machine made. Best wishes.

 

[longinthetooth]

I wouldn't need to go as far as felling the tree - hand-made should imply a good measure of material preparation though, through to joint-making and assembly. Of course it's ill-defined, especially in the public mind.

A sweater could be said to hand-knitted, a more specific term, even if the wool was machine-spun.

I suppose that even an iPhone is hand-assembled!

I say about my own stuff: "I use both machines and hand tools, and most joints I use are from the woodworking tradition."

 

[Peter Sefton]

For me the sweater and hand cut box is handmade, the band saw brings it into machine made or hand crafted if you’re a salesman

 

[graduate_owner]

What about work turned on a lathe (OK, what else would it be turned on?). Is it hand made only if the lathe is a pole or treadle lathe, otherwise machine made? I would say using a copy lathe with the 'mechanically controlled' cutters would be machine made, but since the turner uses his skill to control the turning tool in his hands, that makes it hand made. Others may disagree. Then there are wood carvers who use carving chisels and mallet exclusively, others who use powered rasps and chainsaws in addition to carving tools, and finally those who sculpt only with a chainsaw (and I'm not knocking any of this - some of the chainsaw work I've seen is stunning). Where does it all end - and who decides?

K

 

[longinthetooth]

The lathe turns the work but if the tool is freehand (never mind the toolrest) then I'd class it as hand-work. A thing that distinguishes hand-work is a much greater degree of risk - to the work. This risk is under hand control rather than, for instance, the table and fence of a machine. See (read) David Pye.

 

[Tom K]

Hi there, just looking for a consensus on this one.

What would you say constitutes hand made or hand crafted. For example, if my wife knits a sweater, I would class that as hand made even though she has used some tools (knitting needles).

However, what about my wooden boxes. If I cut everything out using a hand saw and hand chisels etc, then I would also class that as hand made. But what if I used a bandsaw to cut out the pieces and maybe even a powered sander to help with the finishing.

What do you guys think?

regards

Brian

If the bandsawn pieces are guided by hand and by eye its handmade and sanding machines will do more harm than good without the operators hand skill.

 

[RogerP]

If the use of machinery at any stage of an item's production exclude it from being classed as "hand made" then that covers almost everything made by the woodworker. All turning and scroll-saw work are obvious examples. Also anything using veneer, other than the hand-cut variety and there's not many that do that! Clearly all fixings like dowels, biscuits and their derivatives are out - unless one makes them individually by hand. Do the use of machine made screws, nails and other fixings disqualify the item? For example, if you didn't make the hinges and clasp for a box then it's not all handmade. So it goes on until there's not much we make that is scrupulously "hand-made".

But I don't think it matters.

 

[marcros]

i think that it is all about what sounds reasonable and "right" with regard to each product.

The terms are not protected as far as I know, so it is each persons own interpretation. Jig cut dovetails, in my mind, would struggle to be "hand made", but anything short of a production line could be argued to be "hand crafted". Personally, I would be happier to describe something as "x with hand cut dovetails etc", or "planed by hand to give a finish that cannot be replicated by machine". This is open and honest, shows the elements that give a perceived higher quality, and avoids having to interpret how far the term has been stretched.

 

[bugbear]

Hi there, just looking for a consensus on this one.

What would you say constitutes hand made or hand crafted. For example, if my wife knits a sweater, I would class that as hand made even though she has used some tools (knitting needles).

However, what about my wooden boxes. If I cut everything out using a hand saw and hand chisels etc, then I would also class that as hand made. But what if I used a bandsaw to cut out the pieces and maybe even a powered sander to help with the finishing.

What do you guys think?

regards

Brian

post534880.html

BugBear

 

[Eric The Viking]

Consider Tate Modern, and the Turner prize...

... a room in which the light switches on and off by itself?

Apparently, that's art*.

The fact you're musing on this implies you have no intent to deceive. Exactly the opposite, in fact.

"Hand made," "hand crafted," "locally made," "individually made" all probably apply.

To my mind, if you're measuring and cutting to length, and assembling and finishing, and not programming a machine to do any of that (even if things like table saws routers and mitre saws are involved), it qualifies as hand made. People who appreciate the difference between machine and hand-cut dovetails will instantly spot the difference, but to many it's just a strong drawer joint. The first group will pay for hand craftsmanship and excellence, the latter won't, but will still appreciate and pay for something that's not off a Far Eastern production line.

What you're selling really is, "made with care, by me!"

Who can complain about that?

E.

*Some might suggest there is a silent "F" at the front, me included.

 

[MIGNAL]

Pye's definition and his workmanship of risk is about as good as you are going to get. Of course there are many gray areas and blurred dividing lines.
A chap, on another forum, was vehemently arguing that his product was handmade because the CNC machine had been designed, built and programmed by himself. I thought that his product was made by a very skilled, highly intelligent man but not handmade, otherwise the tin of Coca Cola that sits on the supermarket shelf would be effectively 'handmade'. He didn't take too kindly to that remark.

 

[custard]

Pye's definition and his workmanship of risk is about as good as you are going to get.

The more I think about "The Nature And Art Of Workmanship" the less persuaded I am. The idea of "workmanship of risk and certainty" doesn't really stack up in a world where Toyota regularly recalls its cars...so if Alan Peters set out to build a chest of drawers the chances that he'll succeed seem to be far better than with a Yaris!

 

[John51]

I read that some Native Americans were so overwhelmed by demand for their carvings that they started using cnc machines to do the roughing out and then finished them by hand. To me that's still hand made as the only skill in roughing out is to not go too far.

The buying public are so used to mass produced prices that imo something has to give in getting the 'hand made' price down to acceptable levels.

 

[JohnPW]

I think real hand made stuff is only for the rich (or ordinary people who are spending a lot of money) and luxuary products. Although most luxuary products are priced according to their buyers and not on production costs. Actually I think there's isn't much real hand made commercial products at all.

IMO once you start using power tools and machines, then it is not hand made or hand crafted. Power tools and machines would include table saws, band saws, lathes (inc. muscle powered lathes) etc. I would not even say clothes made with any sewing machine, whether it is foot powered or electric, is hand made.

If you're going to say hand feeding something through a machine, or putting something on a machine and pulling a lever to perform an unpowered operation, is hand made, then that makes a mockery of something that is actually hand made. I'm not saying "hand made" itself is better though, I'm all for the use of machines in commercial products.

As mentioned it's not a black and white thing. Even a plane can be said to a sort of simple machine.