It a wooden product, say a chess pience or baseball bat or parts of a wooden chair, are turned on a lathe, is it still kosher to call it handmade?
Are you referring to a lathe powered by human power (hand turned, pedal-driven, or the like)?
Hmmm. I assumed a simple machine powered lathe, but not a million dollar robotic device. Besides speed, is there a huge difference between a small workshop using a human powered vs engine driven lathe? I guess the question is: if using a simple engine drive lathe, is it still “handmade”? I guess there may be no true answer, but wondering if there are standards, traditions, or maybe even regs on this.
Seems to me that’s like asking “if I use an electric saw to cut the wood, is it still considered hand-made?” I don’t think the issue is what is turning the wood on the lathe, but the fact that you are manually shaping the wood. So I would say yes, you can call it handmade.
Well I don’t know if there is an official ruling, but in my opinion, if the piece is on a mechanical lathe but is being carved or shaped by hand, it’s handmade.
I have a friend who makes wooden pens (the kind you write with) on a small motorized lathe, and I would definitely consider them handmade.
Weighing in on the basic Yes side.
I suppose there’s some threshold that must be crossed before “handmade” starts being a misrepresentation of the facts. But since any piece of woodwork that I’ve ever seen has been fashioned with the aid of some tool, even if it’s a 50c Barlow pocketknife, the assistance of tools is almost necessary.
I’m sure there are other crafts with this same issue. And the notion of “homemade” when it comes to prepared dishes served in a restaurant or other public eating establishment probably faces the same concerns.
I prefer coming at the issue(s) from the other extreme: when it becomes necessary for a machine-made object to have some significant portion of its manufacture (I believe the “manu” part of this word comes from the root for “hand”) done by a person, then it can no longer be considered “machine made.” Automation being the Gee Whiz thing these days.
Yes, the skill threshold for turning something on a lathe is reasonably high and unless the operator is using a duplicator attachment, each piece will be slightly different (particularly if it has coves or beads or other frippery on it). Use of a duplicator attachment reduces the “handmade” aspect considerable, especially as the bit on one of those devices scrapes rather than cuts which results in a somewhat inferior finish. Duplicators only work on spindle turning, so any sort of bowl turned on a lathe is going to be unique (except maybe for some big industrial lathes).
A really good turner doesn’t need a duplicator attachment as they can produce consistent results at truly astonishing speeds. (Hackers like myself, on the other hand, sweat to produce even acceptable results and often have to turn to the “80 grit chisel”, e.g. sandpaper.)
IMHO it’s handmade if you are cutting the wood with a tool guided by your hand, regardless of a motorized lathe.
An example of *not * handmade would be a lathe with a computer-controlled cutter that required no human oversight except to make sure it was plugged in.
Handmade would be any thing made by hand control of the cutting and shaping of any product. i.e. a table leg turned on a lathe with the cutting tool under the total control of the hand held tool of the artisan would be considered hand made.
Contrariwise if the same table leg were made on an ‘automatic’ template’ lathe the tool is controlled by the template/machine and would be considered machine made.
Commercial products are usually machine made.
Craft items are usually labelled as and are hand made.
Legally, I believe this would fall to the Federal Trade Commission. I know there is a legal definition for “handmade” as it applies to jewelry. I could not find any info addressing other crafts. But the rules for jewelry and metal pretty much seem to agree with what others here have said.
Yes, unless it was turned by a lobster.
-rimshot-
If no electromechanical intervention was used to hold the cutting tool, then heck yeah. Nobody ever accused a potter of faking a throw because he/she didnt’ use the thrust of their heel to drive their potter’s wheel but instead plugged the darned thing in.
You are hand-making the item using a tool. That’s a far cry from automation !
Cartooniverse
Well, in my case I don’t think it’ll be ‘Making something by hand’ so much as ‘Making piles of shavings out of aluminum billet’.