"Hand Made" Whaty does that mean to you?

[VorpelSword]

This must have been a topic in this forum before, but . . .

How much hand holding has to be involved for you to consider a knife to have been "handmade"?

Many years ago I made a few hobby knives b y hand, but did use powered tools to do it; large rinding wheels, a welder's angle grinder for heavy stock removal, but spent hours working with files of various shapes and sizes.

If a full time kn ife maker makes extensive use f expensive power tols, is that handmade?

If a smith makes extensive use of power hammers and hydraulic presses, is that hand made?

In each case above, the maker has to actually hold the work piece. . . .

What if the maker uses a waterjet cutter and a CNC mill to shape the blade and bevels, but hand finishes the ret of it?

 

[Crag the Brewer]

You are going to get a variety of answers.

Me personally, it's handmade if it was made without software, programs, apps, computer controls/CNC, laser, water jet, or robots....etc. Etc.


Some people might accept partial use for the build.

Some makers will Shame you into believing it shouldn't matter.....

Do what You want/believe to be right for You.

 

[jfk1110]

Too many trap doors in that question........

 

[Lorien]

I'm using waterjet for the first time for a small handful of knives. I'll give some thought while I'm working on them as to whether they feel less handmade than usual or not

 

[VorpelSword]

CNC control will result in reproducibility of profile and form for thousands of blades.

By all means, use the tools and techniques that make sense for you as a knife maker. What really counts is how the knife feels in my hand.

 

[J. Doyle]

CNC control will result in reproducibility of profile and form for thousands of blades.

By all means, use the tools and techniques that make sense for you as a knife maker. What really counts is how the knife feels in my hand.

This is your conclusion/response to your own thread on what constitutes "handmade"?

While there may be some disagreement on exact definition, I can tell you for certain that no sane person considers a CNC knife "handmade".

 

[Danke42]

No CNC or Waterjet here. Just two people living in the moment.

 

[SwissHeritageCo]

There is nothing wrong with streamlining production means to be efficient and economical, but it does give me extra warm and fuzzies knowing that it was just one or two guys behind it all. In my humble opinion, the larger the operation the more that unique little connection to the maker gets diluted.

 

[DocJD]

I can tell you for certain

Please list your clinical experience and qualifications to make such a diagnosis .

There are many levels of "hand made", and the term is way overused , as ad hype .

Meaningless , unless you have actual details about the individual maker / process . IMO .

 

[J. Doyle]

Please list your clinical experience and qualifications to make such a diagnosis .

There are many levels of "hand made", and the term is way overused , as ad hype .

Meaningless , unless you have actual details about the individual maker / process . IMO .

 

[Lorien]

designing a knife by rendering it digitally and then having it made by a machine is not the same thing as making a knife, imo.

I work with people- somewhat sane people or perhaps sometimes sane people- who would never describe the knives that they make using these tools as handmade. Although some of them may be hand finished, the knives are machine made.

 

[scorpnsnake]

§ 23.2 Misuse of the terms “handmade,” “hand-polished,” etc.

(a) It is unfair or deceptive to represent, directly or by implication, that any industry product is handmade or hand-wrought unless the entire shaping and forming of such product from raw materials and its finishing and decoration were accomplished by hand labor and manually-controlled methods which permit the maker to control and vary the construction, shape, design, and finish of each part of each individual product.

 

[Crag the Brewer]

Please list your clinical experience and qualifications to make such a diagnosis .

There are many levels of "hand made", and the term is way overused , as ad hype .

Meaningless , unless you have actual details about the individual maker / process . IMO .

Same line of thinking, like "Made in America"
???

 

[Crag the Brewer]

This is your conclusion/response to your own thread on what constitutes "handmade"?

While there may be some disagreement on exact definition, I can tell you for certain that no sane person considers a CNC knife "handmade".

I wonder what answers the O.P. was looking(reaching) for?

 

[not2sharp]

Handmade is an increasingly obsolescent term. It used to mean custom made, bench made or made with the maker’s (artist’s) personal attention to detail, hence higher quality. But, today machines can far surpass the human hand, and we have to chose between excellent high end products from fully-automated factories, or far more expensive handmade knives, which are more unique but which come with additional inherent defects.

N2s

 

[DocJD]

§ 23.2 Misuse of the terms “handmade,” “hand-polished,” etc.

(a) It is unfair or deceptive to represent, directly or by implication, that any industry product is handmade or hand-wrought unless the entire shaping and forming of such product from raw materials and its finishing and decoration were accomplished by hand labor and manually-controlled methods which permit the maker to control and vary the construction, shape, design, and finish of each part of each individual product.

What is that taken from ?

So , someone like David Mary , is disqualified ?

Seems to me, he does substantial "hand labor and manually-controlled ...etc "

IDK , I'm not a knife maker or very familiar with the process or variations thereof .

And, what exactly is the definition of "raw materials" ?

Steel blanks , stabilized wood ,G-10 etc , are all processed materials by some definitions .

 

[scorpnsnake]

What is that taken from ?

So , someone like David Mary , is disqualified ?

Seems to me, he does substantial "hand labor and manually-controlled ...etc "

IDK , I'm not a knife maker or very familiar with the process or variations thereof .

And, what exactly is the definition of "raw materials" ?

Steel blanks , stabilized wood ,G-10 etc , are all processed materials by some definitions .

Oh I'm not agreeing with it necessarily, just put it up because it's the official guideline I bumped into in a thirty second search. I believe it was intended for the Jewelry industry, found it here at Cornell law.

16 CFR § 23.2 - Misuse of the terms “handmade,” “hand-polished,” etc.

www.law.cornell.edu

 

[David Mary]

Let me just dig up some iron, carbon and silicone so I can say I do everything by hand.

 

[David Mary]

But in all seriousness this is one of those questions that invites all who partake of it to the depths of pedantry and semantics. Who cares how it was made, as long as it was done ethically, and with love for the craft and for the end user. I don’t care what category my work falls into as long as it does what it’s supposed to, which is bring some joy and convenience to the end user for whom it was made.

 

[David Mary]

I’ve read the thread now, I don’t think I missed anything.

Some makers will Shame you into believing it shouldn't matter.....

It doesn’t. Shame on you if you think it does.

By all means, use the tools and techniques that make sense for you as a knife maker. What really counts is how the knife feels in my hand

Basically my position, as stated.

it does give me extra warm and fuzzies knowing that it was just one or two guys behind it all. In my humble opinion, the larger the operation the more that unique little connection to the maker gets diluted.

Agreed. This goes both ways. I consider the people I serve to be friends. I enjoy interacting with them and sure I get paid once but my hope is always that friendly relationships continue on.

I have my blanks water, laser, or plasma cut more often than not, from designs I created either on the computer or on cardboard or G10 first then transferred to the computer. I have made many blades by cutting the steel myself, though. I wouldn’t hesitate to call those ones handmade.

Even some of my precut blanks get further cut and modified by me here and turned into something different from the initial design. That’s hand made as far as I am concerned.

All my handles are hand made.

All my sheaths are handmade.

And even though I don’t specifically make ad copy that calls my knives made from precut blanks handmade I would not argue with someone if they called them that. Why? Because I already know I can cut a knife profile to a high level of precision by hand, enough to make virtually indistinguishable duplicates of a given model. The waterjet just skips that time consuming step, and only that step. Everything else is done by hand.

And again, not that it matters as long as the knife is a knife that does what it’s meant to. Though it matters to me because I highly enjoy doing it.