Author Topic: "Hand made"....but what does that mean?  (Read 5870 times)

Offline Les Symonds

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"Hand made"....but what does that mean?
« on: October 05, 2017, 09:32:47 AM »
So what do we understand to be the meaning of the term "Hand made", and perhaps more importantly, what does Joe Public think is hand-made? The reason I ask is because I was having a discussion with a customer the other day, and he was playing devil's advocate on this subject.

So here's my take on it. To be hand-made an item has to satisfy one of two criteria. Either it has to have been made by a process in which the tooling remains static and the maker manipulates the material, by hand, against the tooling. Or, the material is firmly mounted in some way and the maker moves the tools, by hand, so as to carry out the process necessary to make an item. An example of the former method could be scroll-saw work, whilst turning firmly falls into the latter method. Conversely, the antithesis of either process could involve something like a CNC router/laser cutter, or even a copy-lathe. However, my customer felt that to be truly hand-made, no machinery should be used at all. I obviously disagree with this and place the emphasis on the maker being personally responsible for guiding an essential part of the process, freehand.

What do you all think?

Les
Education is important, but wood turning is importanter.

Offline Derwent Woodturning club

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Re: "Hand made"....but what does that mean?
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2017, 10:22:42 AM »
Hi Les,

I agree with your definition completely. My interpretation of the the phrase is that control of whatever tool is being used, is direct from a human being. So for woodturning, the machine rotates the materiail but the turner has full control of how and where the cut will be made. Using a scroll saw, the user manipulates the material by hand to make the cut and their chosen position.
As soon as you put a programmed machine beteen the human and the workpiece it is NOT man made, even though a human will most likely have designed and programmed that machine.
Regards,
Derwent Woodturning Club

Offline Wood spinner

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Re: "Hand made"....but what does that mean?
« Reply #2 on: October 05, 2017, 12:29:43 PM »
My opinion is that turnings are hand crafted as we dont make the wood

Offline Les Symonds

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Re: "Hand made"....but what does that mean?
« Reply #3 on: October 05, 2017, 01:23:16 PM »
My opinion is that turnings are hand crafted as we dont make the wood
...I don't follow what you're saying  ???....can you explain that a bit further?
Les
Education is important, but wood turning is importanter.

Offline Derek

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Re: "Hand made"....but what does that mean?
« Reply #4 on: October 05, 2017, 01:50:31 PM »
Even though the machine may hold the wood (in our case) we as turners still have to hand hold the tools and make them produce the desired shape. Nearly all crafted items which are hand made need tools of some description. So does that mean that most things can not be classed as hand made

Offline seventhdevil

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Re: "Hand made"....but what does that mean?
« Reply #5 on: October 05, 2017, 02:03:23 PM »
this is my definition of hand made...


regardless as to what machines are being used to help hand make the items in question and presuming we are not thinking of devices like CNC's or other automated gadgets i think it is hand made if the person operating the machine can step away and nothing gets made by the machine.

i step up to a machine that spins my raw material but i am the one making what it spins.


Offline fuzzyturns

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Re: "Hand made"....but what does that mean?
« Reply #6 on: October 05, 2017, 02:53:58 PM »
Les, I would definitely recommend the book "The nature and art of workmanship" (by David Pye) to be read by your customer, where David puts forward the concept of the "workmanship of risk", where essentially the maker risks a complete failure of the entire process with every step along the way, and its all down to the dexterity and skill of the maker.

This is in contrast to the workmanship of safety, which covers not only mass manufacture, but also any other production process where the element of risk has been excluded as far as possible.

As you can see from these definitions, the question of machinery being used does not even come into the picture.

Offline The Bowler Hatted Turner

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Re: "Hand made"....but what does that mean?
« Reply #7 on: October 05, 2017, 08:02:38 PM »
A few years ago I used to sell my work through a craft fair, one of the regular stall holders sold "hand made" wooden toys. All of the comonentry for the toys were brought on the internet, so mass produced wheels for trains or a wheel with dowel in the middle as a spinning top, you know the sort of stuff. But all this person did was apply the paint and that came out of a spray can and was done bulk.
That prson's argument was she "made it look pretty enough to sell" and as the paint brush (although she hardly ever used one) ws held in her hand that made the whole lot hand made.
Again, me and my big mouth had to say something and I was told it was not what I considered hand made was but what the buying public considered it was and as long as no one told them different she was quite happy.
Personally I think if a person guides the tool be it a pair of scissors, a saw or a chisel or paint brush then that article can be said to be hand made, but what then of art that has been created by someone pressing buttons on a computer and then printing out the finished item?

Offline bodrighywood

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Re: "Hand made"....but what does that mean?
« Reply #8 on: October 05, 2017, 09:15:52 PM »
Hand made nearly always involves the use of tools be it chisels, potters wheels, paint brushes or nowadays computers. What makes it hand made IMHO is the fact that someone has had the idea, then the skill to create something. There is a very thin line between the sort of thing that John refers to and hand made which I can't define in words but, for example, to me, steampunk is hand made though it involves using all sorts of odds and ends originally meant for something else. I struggle though to see cards etc made from bits simply bought in and stuck together. Don't ask me the difference, just the way I feel about it. I think of it as defining the combiation of thought and skill to make something rather than the process.

Pete
Turners don't make mistakes, they have design opportunities

Offline edbanger

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Re: "Hand made"....but what does that mean?
« Reply #9 on: October 05, 2017, 10:36:07 PM »
To e hand made should mean the craft person has made the item.

Last year I gave up on a firm that run craft fairs and had people selling brought in products but these were hand made somewhere in the world.

Ed

Offline Wood spinner

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Re: "Hand made"....but what does that mean?
« Reply #10 on: October 06, 2017, 04:23:48 AM »
My opinion is that turnings are hand crafted as we dont make the wood
...I don't follow what you're saying  ???....can you explain that a bit further?
Les

If I hand make a cake I start with a selection of ingredence then mix and bind them togeter and construct the cake

If it turn a bowl or a candle stick the wood is already made , I alter the shape / profile and craft it with maybe texturing , burning colouring etc

Offline fuzzyturns

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Re: "Hand made"....but what does that mean?
« Reply #11 on: October 06, 2017, 09:12:58 AM »
... I struggle though to see cards etc made from bits simply bought in and stuck together. ...

Pete, I think you struggle with the lack of effort that goes into these "hand-made" items (and so do I).
As far as I am concerned, yes, they are hand-made, but as always there's a wide range in quality and substance.

Offline seventhdevil

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Re: "Hand made"....but what does that mean?
« Reply #12 on: October 06, 2017, 12:51:55 PM »
My opinion is that turnings are hand crafted as we dont make the wood
...I don't follow what you're saying  ???....can you explain that a bit further?
Les

If I hand make a cake I start with a selection of ingredence then mix and bind them togeter and construct the cake


If it turn a bowl or a candle stick the wood is already made , I alter the shape / profile and craft it with maybe texturing , burning colouring etc



the wood, stone plastic or metal is just a raw material as are the ingredients for a cake.

did you make the flour, butter and sugar and then lay the eggs for your cake???


Offline Wood spinner

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Re: "Hand made"....but what does that mean?
« Reply #13 on: October 06, 2017, 02:17:27 PM »
My opinion is that turnings are hand crafted as we dont make the wood
...I don't follow what you're saying  ???....can you explain that a bit further?
Les

If I hand make a cake I start with a selection of ingredence then mix and bind them togeter and construct the cake


If it turn a bowl or a candle stick the wood is already made , I alter the shape / profile and craft it with maybe texturing , burning colouring etc



the wood, stone plastic or metal is just a raw material as are the ingredients for a cake.

did you make the flour, butter and sugar and then lay the eggs for your cake???

No I did not and thats my point , I did not make the tree either

Offline Redtails3

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Re: "Hand made"....but what does that mean?
« Reply #14 on: October 06, 2017, 03:03:49 PM »
Hi
This statement about being hand made is possibly beyond definition.
The old saying one mans meat is another man's poison?
Also beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 🚾🚾🚾