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Old 08-26-2019, 06:36 AM
charles Tauber charles Tauber is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Bard Rocks View Post
If they use the word "entirely" before the rest, I'd have more confidence that human hands had a greater share of the work that went into it.
Sort of like "real mother of pearl"? Not many advertise "fake mother of pearl". Something is either what it is claimed or it is not: claiming something to be something it is not is often the purpose of marketing.

If something is "handmade", it is "handmade": "entirely handmade" is superfluous. No one advertises "partially handmade". Nearly nothing in today's world is "entirely handmade", that is, made without the assistance of some machinery along the way.

I spent a few weeks learning to make furniture without any power tools or sandpaper: we used only handsaws, planes and chisels. However, we didn't fell our own trees with axes or handsaws and split our own wood with a froe: it was cut by chainsaw, likely, milled into lumber on a machine and transported to us using a machine prior to our touching it. The furniture we made was designed on a computer using CAD software. The finish we applied, linseed oil, was made using machines. Where does one draw the line in the "supply chain" to claim something was "handmade"?

Eastman, from the previous post, uses spray equipment - a compressor or turbine to deliver compressed air - rather than brushes or rags. Is that "handmade" since it uses a machine to deliver the finish to the surface of the work? Yes, a human directs the machine (sprayed finish). Is that enough to say it is "handmade"? A human directs a bulldozer: is work done with a bulldozer "handmade"? The term means whatever you want it to mean, applied however you want to apply it, the purpose of which is to invoke some Old World mystique of "quality".

For discussion sake, suppose Eastman guitars were 100% made by machine. If the instrument was exactly the same quality, would it matter if it was made with only 50% machinery-assisted? How about 25%? How about 10%? If the instrument is "the same" quality, regardless of how it was made, does it matter how it was made? (The discussion of human labour/livelihood being replaced/displaced by machines, as a social issue, is a different, longer discussion.)
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