Hand Made versus Hand Crafted

[rdb]

I keep reading and listening, but I'm still confused by the semantics.

I still believe it's the personal responsibility that is the key, not the tools (hands or machine).

So, I design a wallet. I have a metalworker make dies. I have the parts clicked out. Bring them home, and design a graphic on my computer for the wallet carving. I have a laser etch the design onto the leather, then use my compressor and airbrush to stain and color. Then I hand glue and assemble. Using my Toro 300, I sew it together. I sell it at the Festival. There is the dilemna!!!! Is it hand made, hand crafted, or just simply made by Me? In the medieval days, the best smithy used all the tools at his disposal, be it the new forge designed, or some specially crafted tool. In this modern age, we do the same thing. Is our product some mutant beast, or still a product made by a creative individual as opposed to a conglomerate output?

Using semantics, the only true craftsman would hunt and kill with his hands, butcher, and tan with his teeth, and thong together with strips of torn bark.

I refuse to be classified. If anyone asks.."I made it."

[BondoBobCustomSaddles]

Hidepounder et al, I agree with you. On my cards and sign it says " Custom Saddles and Tack, All Handmade the Old-Fashioned Way", so I am not sure which catagory that puts me in. Bottom line, the quality will always determine where you fit.

Bondo Bob

[TwinOaks]

Using the definition of "machine" as per Wiki: A simple machine is a device that transforms the direction or magnitude of a force

Now a good example of a simple machine is the inclined plane....call it a slope.

Now, if a slope can be a machine, then I suggest that a needle can be a machine, a VERY simple machine. Try sewing with out one. It directs a force (shove the needle through the leather) and then allows the user to transform the pushing force into pulling force (because you're using a needle that's too large for the hole).

I gotta agree with rdb's last comment. If you use anything but harsh language to cut, penetrate, bind, or finish your projects you've used a machine.....some of them could be called "tool". About the only leather thing I think you could make with NO TOOLS....well, nevermind. You gotta get the skin off the cow somehow.

Edited May 9, 2009 by TwinOaks

[Rayban]

Correct me if I am wrong but the best method of stitching two pieces of leather together is saddlestitching not machine stitching.

Jim

Jim, that's a whooooole nudder discussion that also comes up every now and then when someone decides it's been too quiet around here....

My answer in a word is....depends.....some leather work will always have to be hand stitched, while others, machine stitching will do just as good of a job...such as lining a knife sheath...

Now let's sit back, pop open a cold one, and see what you've done started.

RG

[JamesR]

Jim, that's a whooooole nudder discussion that also comes up every now and then when someone decides it's been too quiet around here....

My answer in a word is....depends.....some leather work will always have to be hand stitched, while others, machine stitching will do just as good of a job...such as lining a knife sheath...

Now let's sit back, pop open a cold one, and see what you've done started.

RG

Rayban,

Sincerly was not trying to start anything. I was just trying to come up with a comparison between one way to do something vs another. I am not leather savvy enough to know which methods are the state of the art way of doing things.

Jim

[Denise]

My mother makes all sorts of beautiful clothes using a knitting machine. To do a straight, plain section, she hand moves the carriage back and forth and the machine knits a row each time. But to make a pattern or to cast on or off, she uses special tools to move individual stitches from one hook to another. (She designs her own patterns for construction as well as color and stitch variations.) So the row takes less than 5 seconds to knit, but the switching between rows takes a while. It takes about 2 hours to knit a newborn sized baby sweater with a pattern on it. Then the parts all have to be hand sewn together. So I wouldn’t call her sweaters “hand knitted”, because the machine does the knitting, but I would call them hand made or hand crafted because they were individually done with care. It takes some effort to move the carriage across. She is getting older now and if there were such a thing (I don’t know if there is) as a powered knitting machine where she pushed a button to make the carriage move, it would be easier on her shoulders, but I wouldn’t change how I thought of the result. It would still be hand made in my mind.

Interesting discussion. It has made me think, which is always a good thing.

Points gleaned:

1.) Hand anything is not necessarily synonymous with quality. (The reverse - totally machine produced is not necessarily synonymous with poor quality - is also true.)

2.) There is no consistent definition for either term.

3.) Quality shows regardless of what you call it.

4.) As far as marketing goes, showing goes further than telling.

Thanks everyone!

[jbird]

I think this is very good topic and I must say that the terms are over used under rated and disfigured in every way when you here hand made you think ok it's junk and why is that because the people that use that tag are not doing very good work IMHO

So I say professionally hand crafted to perfection

Josh

[hidepounder]

When it comes to what most of us do here, I don't see why this issue is such big deal. What difference does it make whether you prefer to use the term "hand made" or "hand crafted"? I doubt customers will be swayed one way or the other if they are interested in the product. For most of us it's obvious that we have created the piece ourselves and the quality is self evident. When an individual cannot distinguish between a hand made product or a commercial manufactued product, the simple term "hand made" or "hand crafted" is not enough information to educate them. I think you should use the term you like the best and not worry about it. Personally, I like to use the term "custom made" and that's what I put on my makers stamp. At that point I'm glad to answer questions (and hope to make a sale!!!!).

[MarkB]

Webster's Dictionary

Hand crafted is to fashion by handicraft and handicraft is a manual skill or an occupation requiring skill with the hands.

Hand made is made by hand or a hand process.

Hope this makes everything clear as mud.

Good luck in find a answer everyone agrees with

Mark

[JohnBarton]

I'd like to know how to distinguish two excellent items where one was made in a factory setting and the other was made by a single person?

This topic came up recently on the billiards forum with the original poster contending that in his opinion that which is made by one person, using only their hands, is inherently better than something made in a shop which is outfitted like a production environment.

I disagree with this statement for the obvious reason that my shop consists of five people besides me who produce goods using the not only our hands but also using whatever tools I can buy or make that makes our life easier from case to case.

I have seen production leather goods that were as well built as a thing could possibly be. Strong and stout and not a stitch out of place with no flaws.

How can something that one single person builds be any better than that? Perfect is perfect right?

On top of that in the cue case factory most of the processes involve hand work. I can certainly understand the idea that many cooks can spoil the broth when it comes to the production of things. All it takes is one worker to get off kilter and that screws up umpteen products.

I am just of the impression that if it's done right then it's right whether it's done by one person from start to finish or it's done by ten.

Formerly I started a company called Instroke Cue Cases. The first cases were all unique cases done in vinyl and leather. A few years later we changed into a production case company. The cases were made in the Czech Republic by a company with more than 100 years experience in fine leather goods. Our company was based in Germany. Try as I might I could not get people to stop calling the Instroke cases "German Made". They would talk about the quality of the case and praise "German Engineering" and nothing I did could stop it.

I used to say it's not "where it's made", but instead "who made it" that is important. I think that is the gist of most people's concept here.

A fine leather product is a fine product no matter how many people and machines were involved in the process. There is a company here called SKAP that produces some of the finest leather items I have ever seen. I go to their store often. The designs are almost always top notch and the workmanship is world class. The stuff is also VERY EXPENSIVE with briefcases costing around $400-$800, shoes at $200-$400, little men's purses around $2-300, etc....

I had never heard of SKAP before coming to China. They "say" that it's a French brand but I think that's just a story. One thing is certain, they have put it all together with design and production. You could take their stuff to any arts festival and some of the bags would win awards for sure.

As old uncle Morty might have said, "hand made schmand made, vas it a bargain at tvice da price, dan ist gut, don't kvetch about it?" or something like that :-)

Maybe we need a new descriptor, how about brain-made?