- A one-off is
usually hand made.
- Power tools such as TS, router, planer, jointer are used in hand-made stuff, so why not CNC?
- I would allow CNC for
some parts
but not the whole.
- Oddly enough, I frown more on laser-cut than CNC in a hand-made product.
- I also frown on those things that route spiral legs.
Its really difficult to find the line in the sand that makes something hand-made or not. Maybe it has to do with the skill required to run the machinery. If any ole idiot can do it, then its not hand-made, but if it requires skill to operate the machine, AND you are required to know something about the wood, then maybe it can be considered hand-made.
OK, let me step on a few toes here. How about dovetail jigs and a router, do they violate the hand-made rule? Or the conveyor driven drum sanders many of us use? Power fed Shapers? Or how about using jigs where you make many many of the same thing? What if I hand-make a nice wooden box and then take it to my manual milling machine and mill some interesting pattern on one side? The mill is NOT automated, it is controlled entirely by the hand cranks. To really nit-pick,
I could argue that using a smoothing plane is hand-work, whereas a grooving plane is not since the fence accomodates and makes up for the lack of skill of the operator.
Can you determine based on the
tools used, or is it the
time it takes you? Maybe it has to do with the
consumption of electricity, or
how many of the same widgets you put out, or
how fast you can put them out, or
how the tool bit was guided.
Specifically targeting CNC since it seems to be the big taboo. What if you hand-crafted this very nice piece using only hand-tools(hand planes spokeshaves, a steak knife, and hand sanding, THEN you had a nice laser engraved name put on it? Now we're talking about
how much was done by hand. Is ANY 'automated' work allowed? Maybe you do all the shaping and cutting with accepted hand tools but simply add precise hole patterns (used for assembly) using a CNC machine?
When building a homebuilt aircraft (see www.eaa.org), there's a thing called the 51% rule. If you do more than 51% of the work, you can claim yourself as the builder, or 'manufacturer', and register the plane as a homebuilt and it falls under the 'Experimental Aircraft' class. Can hand-built woodworking follow a similar rule, perhaps with a different percentage?
Fat chance nailing this Jello question to the wall.
All the above is my own thoughts and opinion, nothing else.