what is handmade?

[chuck123wapati]

7 hours ago, chrisash said:

At the end of the day the word "HANDMADE" is just a marketing message that has lost all meaning just like "High Quality", "Made in the USA" or UK, or any other country, (all countries have good bad and indifferent qualities of products)

The only time people use the words "Handmade" is often when they are trying to sell something, and trying to make it stand out from commercially made goods

I think you are right to a point, in the more modern countries it would be true in some countries however hand made is still how most things the poor folk use are made. many of our definitions are coming to be marketing messages, I always laugh at the car commercial that shows a steering wheel cover being hand stitched to the wheel people believe that crap or just go along with it I guess.

[chuck123wapati]

15 hours ago, Frodo said:

hand made is something mad by hand,  granted that sweat shops use sewing machines to turn out stuff

but the difference is, They are turning out production and not one of a kind items

So, In MY opinion,which if you add a dollar you can buy a cup of coffee,,hand made means an item that is not turned out in production form but made one at a time by a craftsman, not an hourly production employee

I like that opinion it as good as any.

 

[Frodo]

2 minutes ago, chuck123wapati said:

I like that opinion it as good as any.

 

 

a TRUE handmade leather item , would by definition

be made using a flint knife and a deer bone as a needle

[chuck123wapati]

15 hours ago, JLSleather said:

https://www.jlsleather.com/hand-made-well-made/

Interesting,  so to you the term handmade is an essentially useless term and all products stand only on quality of their build no matter the machine processes or human work involved?

[chuck123wapati]

6 minutes ago, Frodo said:

 

a TRUE handmade leather item , would by definition

be made using a flint knife and a deer bone as a needle

LOL I have done that, learning to knap was my big hang up as well as fleshing out a hide and brain tanning, sorry didn't make the bow or arrows that killed the deer. So does it still count?

[Alexis1234]

I guess i define " hand made" as an item that was made using more hand tools  then machines, at a high level of skill and in a non factory type setting.

[Ken Nelson]

I would have to agree with you on your last comment.  My saddles I talk about get about or over 100 hours of time.  I do use a hand skiver to shape the ground seat, and I skive a lot of leather off of the leather I put into it.   I use a number of hand operated tools to prepare the pieces  to be fitted,  fit them by hand,  block and tack the skirts by hand.   All stamping or tooling is done by hand.  Any buckstitching is done by hand with hand cut and beveled lace made in my shop. 

The comment about hand-made being a merchandising tool and in a lot of cases, a flat out LIE is also true.  No matter what your feelings are about "hand made"  the most important thing, I think,  is be honest with your customer.  All of my customers, most  know me,  and the others Know of me.  I think this is true of most leather craftsman who have a client base.   Reputation is everything in Custom work and maybe  "Custom" is the keyword here instead of "Handmade".

[chuck123wapati]

1 hour ago, Ken Nelson said:

  No matter what your feelings are about "hand made"  the most important thing, I think,  is be honest with your customer.  All of my customers, most  know me,  and the others Know of me.  I think this is true of most leather craftsman who have a client base.   Reputation is everything in Custom work and maybe  "Custom" is the keyword here instead of "Handmade".

Very well said! 

[robs456]

3 hours ago, Ken Nelson said:

maybe  "Custom" is the keyword here instead of "Handmade"

Yes.
Speaking of the term in a marketing context I think using Custom instead of Handmade is much better.
While people nowadays don't really care how a product is made, they DO care about it being made specifically for them, and personalization. 
THAT is an excellent marketing point, as is Made-to-order.
Using 'custom' as the selling point will never break any 'ethical' obstacles either, if you believe in those.

[YinTx]

This came in the mail.  Couldn't resist.

YinTx