Originally Posted by
twoartistic
Thank you, for finding this, it completely confirms what I have said. Each piece on the video has elements or processes that include manually-controlled methods which permit the maker to control and vary the type, amount, and effect of such operation. Thereby making that portion of that piece "hand-crafted"
It was mentioned that the gear table was clearly cnc produced and that is true. the profile cuts of the teeth were completely cut with my cnc, and the gear shapes were roughed out using a 3 deg x 1/4"dia. ball nose conical bit @ 0.1 inch raster passes with no finish pass. Why no finish pass? Because, I like to work the final finish by hand, using hand gouges and/or rotary tools. The subtle variations in shape and faceting are what gives the piece the distinctive hand worked quality. I could have saved many hours of work, to run a finishing pass at say 0.03"-0.05" per pass and simply sanded the machining marks out of the wood. Nine full days worth of man hours were spent hand-working the gears to my satisfaction. The piece has a hand oiled finish, I did the finish myself, because I have seen projects ruined at this stage, and we had far too many hours in this piece for me not to take personal responsibility of the finish. In my book, that qualifies as "hand-crafted", since much of "the operation described was accomplished by hand labor and manually-controlled methods which permit the maker to control and vary the type, amount, and effect of such operation" I have never claimed that all of our work is entirely hand crafted, that would be deceptive, although I have done pieces that are completely hand crafted, including hand cutting the raw materials.
As I have posted before, I am calling our work hand crafted from the aspect of the hand worked elements and process that (as quoted above) permit the maker to control and vary the type, amount, and effect of such operation on each part of each individual product. I hope that detailed explanation satisfies any further questions about what I mean by "hand crafted" in our video. I further hope, that given the quality of the work shown, that even the most particular personalities would accept, that when comparing one of our pieces along side say an Ethan Allen, Martin, or any other "fully processed" furniture, door, or cabinet project that the overwhelming opinion would be that ours is hand crafted. If not, then the next time your in my area, I'll rough you out a piece at the above mentioned specs, after 4, to 6 hours per square feet (if your fairly good, since African Teak is harder than my head) of working the shape with hand tools we will see if you still think it is not hand crafted. Hmm, I wonder how much I should charge for that kind of educational opportunity?