What does "hand made" mean?
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- This topic has 2 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 6 years, 1 month ago by Edmund.
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23 March 2018 at 5:26 pm #506661
I came across a website called “Etsy”where people sell their arts and crafts. I noticed there were a number of nice wood projects for sale, almost all of which were described as “hand made” or “hand crafted” which are, in fact, produced by machine / power tool methods. Of course, these products were hand made, depending on one’s definition of the term. So, asking for your thoughts – what does the term “hand made” mean, and also, what do you suspect it means to the typical consumer?
- This topic was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by joemonahan.
Etsy is a major “DIY” website where people sell there wares. It is a giant public company as well (with a weird corporate structure that is another discussion altogether). The items on the site are supposed to be hand-made/artisanal goods, but I don’t know how effectively it is policed and I do believe there are many instances of people having violated the spirit of the site. I’m sure all of those end-grain cutting boards are 90% made with machines–it’s a real pain in the a$$ to make one with a saw and plane (but I have proudly completely hand-made one for myself out of walnut).
It’s a common intro-to-philosophy type question, and the answer is whatever you choose it to be.
For me, I start off with the fact that none of us are using only our hands (we all use tools, even if they are robotic routers or 200 year-old chisels) and that nothing we produce is made out of severed hands (to eliminate the other possible interpretation of “hand made”). This leaves me with the observation that the term “hand made” is applied erroneously — we didn’t use only our hands and it’s not made from severed hands.
And let’s not even get into the use of braces (forehead-and-hand-made?) or a treadle lathe (foot-and-hand-made?). Even Paul uses machines to mill his stock for his projects — would you turn your nose up at a Paul Sellers product listed as “hand made” because at some point its lumber was run through a thicknesser? What about the possibility that even the hand tools themselves were made in huge factories using computer-controlled milling machines? Is that OK?
So since the term is used erroneously, its definition is in the realm of custom, culture, personal interpretation. It’s arbitrary. So I don’t get too hung up on it. I suppose I’d like it to mean that a craftsperson / people built the product with personal care and attention applied throughout the entire process, and apart from that, the details not terribly important.
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