One of my favourite stories is the young lady ATA pilot in the war who was asked to detour en route to her delivery to collect some RAF bigwigs. She landed at the airfield and in due course a staff car arrived and said bigwigs and their attendants got out, and then proceeded to just stand around smoking and having a chat. After some time she approached one of them and asked what the delay was. "My dear girl, we are waiting for the pilot" came the reply. When she informed them that she WAS the pilot, one of the lackeys was sent to have a look inside the plane as they didn't believe her, priceless!
What constitutes 'handmade' ?
- Thread starter Jeremy Nako
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Yes, certainly found myself arms windmilling on the edge of the abyss there, however inadvertentlyWell done reversing out of the potential deep hole you started falling into
Sgian Dubh
Established Member
I think the whole hand made along with the alleged loss of skill debate is pretty much meaningless. Technology and skills evolve and a more pertinent label to attach to a wooden artefact (furniture primarily in this case) revolves around terms such as one-off, custom or bespoke as opposed to batch production and mass production. It's often said that CNC machine use is ninety percent long runs of repetitive products such as kitchen cabinetry, e.g., panel sizing, line boring for shelf pins, sockets for hinges, and so on. The 'other' ten percent of CNC machinery use is for everything else, whatever that may be.
Included in the everything else category are people I know of, quite rare I admit, that use their CNC machine for one-off jobs. I know of a furniture company that regularly set up their CNC machine for such work- indeed, their reputation is largely built on such skill and expertise in harnessing contemporary sophisticated technology. An example from their portfolio was machining a single barley twist column for a pulpit or lectern, I don't recall which exactly. It probably took as long from the beginning to the end for that job on the CNC as it would take a skilled carver/woodworker to do it entirely by hand with a hand saw, a plane, lathe, marking tools, a pencil, some masking tape, gouges, mallet, and the requisite hand skills. To do the job on a CNC machine requires alternative sophisticated skills from generating the drawing digitally on a computer to preparing the wood and running the programme.
I suspect the final charge to the customer wouldn't vary much between the handwork only approach and the hi-tech CNC approach to creating that single barley twist column taking into account wages, workshop expenses, investment in technology and machinery, etc. Slainte.
Included in the everything else category are people I know of, quite rare I admit, that use their CNC machine for one-off jobs. I know of a furniture company that regularly set up their CNC machine for such work- indeed, their reputation is largely built on such skill and expertise in harnessing contemporary sophisticated technology. An example from their portfolio was machining a single barley twist column for a pulpit or lectern, I don't recall which exactly. It probably took as long from the beginning to the end for that job on the CNC as it would take a skilled carver/woodworker to do it entirely by hand with a hand saw, a plane, lathe, marking tools, a pencil, some masking tape, gouges, mallet, and the requisite hand skills. To do the job on a CNC machine requires alternative sophisticated skills from generating the drawing digitally on a computer to preparing the wood and running the programme.
I suspect the final charge to the customer wouldn't vary much between the handwork only approach and the hi-tech CNC approach to creating that single barley twist column taking into account wages, workshop expenses, investment in technology and machinery, etc. Slainte.
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J-G
Established Member
I happen to be one of those 'rare' people. For me, CNC is often a means to get a quicker accurate result. I recall my father encouraging me to think about anything I intended to 'make' by first creating a drawing - specifically, I remember him saying; "If you can draw it, lad, you can make it". For the past 70+ years I've always known what the final product looks like before I've even selected the materials.
An opportunity to own a small CNC machine came to me about 3 years ago and I can count on one hand the number of times I've made two or more items from the same G-Code. On occasion I even manually enter G-Code to make a jig or fixture, which is essentailly just like 'marking out'
TomGW
Established Member
A few years ago I had a chance meeting with an Irish man in Lithuania. He had a business there, employing local women to produce Arran knitwear. The product was then sent to Ireland to have labels sewn on, buttons attached etc, before being exported with the legend “Hand knit and finished in Ireland”. His argument was that the wool come from New Zealand and if he employed knitters in Ireland they would most likely be East Europeans anyhow.
I’m staying with my cousin this weekend—we were talking about some place mats and coasters he had. They looked like they were made with a CNC laser. He said a relative of his made them by hand—I disagreed and his son said—as far as he was concerned it was handmade and why does it matter. He went on to say if you think it’s handmade then it’s handmade and what’s the problem? Interesting point but I’m not sure I agree with it—if you describe something as handmade I’d expect you made it with your hands. Maybe a better term would be handcrafted for things purely made with hand tools and handmade is that you have made it yourself using tools of any description.
Sachakins
The most wasted of days is one without woodwork
So maybe we could move the goal posts a bit away from hand made and hand crafted as a distinction, and move towards home made or home crafted, which would encompass using any tool for any product made from home, as opposed to factory?
Sgian Dubh
Established Member
There are terms that cover that distinction already, aren't there? Id est, one-off, custom and/or bespoke.
Personally if you have made something with both hand and/ or power tools, you have assembled it , checked it’s square, clamped it all together then imo by definition it’s handmade, so you cut up your timber with a table saw and you use a router to form dados, and nice edges and a drill to make the necessary holes, not to mention the measurements and mental calculations to form and create your project then by definition it’s hand made. If we go back 1 step and you have all your various components and mechanical parts hinges fixture’s and fittings etc and then stare at it intently does it all suddenly assemble itself, does the woodwork fairies appear overnight and complete the project. I can just about cope with normal tools and power tools let alone the likes of a cnc router or a 3d printer so it matters not to me if you say hand made or hand assembled etc it’s something you have created with skill and various tools and equipment your own knowledge so it’s as this thread is titled-hand made. Morgan cars are hand made or is that hand assembled either way a machine has to make the engine and various other components and these machines are operated by skilled workers who control these machines or thousands of pounds of materials get written off . And before someone says actually they controlled by computers or robots well who programmed said computers etc . So all I know is there is hand made in all its different guises and there is mass produced furniture and other items that are made in their millions .
Ed Weber
Established Member
People usually prefer something that is "handmade" over a machine produced item.
Many can apprecuate the skill that went into the making of an item, others like the fact that it's unique, as it was not mass produced.
Many can apprecuate the skill that went into the making of an item, others like the fact that it's unique, as it was not mass produced.
Personally if you have made something with both hand and/ or power tools, you have assembled it , checked it’s square, clamped it all together then imo by definition it’s handmade, so you cut up your timber with a table saw and you use a router to form dados, and nice edges and a drill to make the necessary holes, not to mention the measurements and mental calculations to form and create your project then by definition it’s hand made. If we go back 1 step and you have all your various components and mechanical parts hinges fixture’s and fittings etc and then stare at it intently does it all suddenly assemble itself, does the woodwork fairies appear overnight and complete the project. I can just about cope with normal tools and power tools let alone the likes of a cnc router or a 3d printer so it matters not to me if you say hand made or hand assembled etc it’s something you have created with skill and various tools and equipment your own knowledge so it’s as this thread is titled-hand made. Morgan cars are hand made or is that hand assembled either way a machine has to make the engine and various other components and these machines are operated by skilled workers who control these machines or thousands of pounds of materials get written off . And before someone says actually they controlled by computers or robots well who programmed said computers etc . So all I know is there is hand made in all its different guises and there is mass produced furniture and other items that are made in their millions .
Sachakins
The most wasted of days is one without woodwork
No, there are many businesses that will do one off, bespoke etc. That's my distinction, they are businesses.
Like home made pub food…
TheTiddles
Established Member
Use of any tool means it’s no longer handmade, so that’d be everything other than a clay pot dug out the ground and formed by hand, using a stick to dig with, no longer hand made... So it’s a meaningless statement from the same people who bring you “military grade”, “industrial spec” and “professional quality”.
don't forget luxury accommodation and apartment, fancy name for a flat.
Doug71
Established Member
I find anything that has "Heavy Duty" or "Professional quality" written on it normally isn't!
People sometimes refer to things I make as being handmade but the fact that those things are often made out of MDF, cut on a sliding panel saw and joined together with Dominos I think terms like custom or bespoke are definitely more fitting.
To me handmade makes me think just hand tools, no kind of power tools involved.
People sometimes refer to things I make as being handmade but the fact that those things are often made out of MDF, cut on a sliding panel saw and joined together with Dominos I think terms like custom or bespoke are definitely more fitting.
To me handmade makes me think just hand tools, no kind of power tools involved.
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