Am I Still "Hand Crafting"

[aaron]

We sell custom built furniture and have always pushed that our furniture is hand crafted in the USA. I recently started CNC cutting some of my basic pieces and just got to thinking last night "am I still handcrafting"? Am I misleading my customers now? We still hand assemble, hand sand, tweak, tune, etc but- at what point are things no longer hand crafted? Does handcrafted mean no CNC? Or just not made on a giant assembly line? Do you think I need to change my advertising now?

Thanks!
Aaron

[jseiler]

Hence a new term....hand finished.

[jamesgilliam]

Aaron, I would say no, you don't need to change what you are saying about it being hand crafted. With the amount of hand work you are doing I do not think anyone would complain about it, especially if you were using power tools to make some of the parts before going CNC. While the Bot will turn out the parts the same way every time, the craftsmanship still lies in the rest of the process. Just think of the machine as a tool. If someone really wanted to go to the farthest limits of the term "handcrafted", I would say that had to start from the begining, cutting the tree down with an ax, the roughing of the planks with a hand saw, and going all the way to the final finish. Just my opinion.

[wberminio]

Aaron

Do you cut-drill-sand with your fingernails?
Do assemble your joints by pounding your fists?

CNC tools are TOOLS.Just as are your electric saws and drills.

I think many of us have struggled with your dilemma--Until the mailman arrives with this month's bills


Believe me,If Stradivarius had a Shopbot,he would have used it and still would have created his
musical marvels.

Erminio

[dana_swift]

I too have pondered the "hand made" claim, as even when I used power tools and fixtures to hold everything in place (pre bot days) the tools were constrained to make the cuts correctly. I didn't just hand hold saws, drills, etc.

I used to use a router table with patterns and special tooling to make my parts. Now the gantry holds the router, and moves it in a pre-defined motion. Yet things clearly are not the same anymore.

I do cut many of my own trees, dry the wood, re saw it etc. I use a chainsaw and a band saw. Is that cheating? I move the wood with a pickup and a trailer. Should I have carried it on my shoulder? My shoulders aren't what they used to be, and I don't think they were ever up to carrying a 20' x 40" tree trunk. Certainly not now.

Is it only "hand made" when the power tools are hand-held? Maybe that is where the difference is. Hand finished or hand assembled, those still apply. Perhaps I should refer to my work as "precision cut - hand assembled"! I kind of like that..

Now I have become a weaselly wordcrafter also... Should I run for office?

D

[bcammack]

re: "hand finished"

I remember back in the late '60s when we were driving out from Anchorage, Alaska to Los Angeles on our annual 10k mile round-trip. We stopped for breakfast in the middle of nowhere in the Yukon Territory at a tiny, rustic roadside cafe beside the narrow gravel highway.

Upon opening the breakfast menu, the entry "freshly poured orange juice" caught my eye. We were, of course, at least six or seven thousand miles from the nearest orange grove. Everything came up the Alcan in cans then.

I still chuckle when I consider the nuance of that entry...

[gerryv]

Aaron,

Some years ago, before the NAFTA agreement, I believe that the rule of thumb for "made in Canada" of "made in USA" required 50+% content (including labour I believe). While this is a different scenario, I'd think that the same principle would/should/could provide some guidance on this question.

[paco]

Aaron, you do use your keyboard and mouse to create files and toolpaths, right?... or at least a voice recognition system of any kind.

Even C-3PO has hands...

Seriously, it's an eternal debate. If you think that "Hand made" isn't appropriate anymore, then "Robot made" may not be better.

[dray]

If you have to ask then the answer is no.


When I do that I am usually searching for the answer that I want lol

[harryball]

The way I look at it... Hand Made means that the cuts, shaping etc... were guided by human flesh and bone. This lets the inconsistencies and flaws of human craftsmanship come through. No two pieces alike and all. Those hands can be holding chisels, power tools or pushing material through power tools but THEY are guiding the shaping.

I personally would be disappointed to buy a "hand made" table or whatever and find out the parts were cut on a CNC. Hand Assembled and Finished might be more appropriate. However, cutting sub components of an item but not the primary creative component might be described with more detail. For example, if I made a table frame on the bot but then hand made table tops for the same frame I might say "Hand Made and Finished custom table top tables" or some such.

/RB