My sister cards and spins the wool herself on occasion. She lives next to an Amish family that truly makes things by hand.
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Lunchtime and I’m going to watch that video. I love a good factory tour. Before I do that I’m going to list some of the power tools I think I might see re the whole discussion about ‘hand made’.
Orbital sander
Palm sander / sheet sander
Drum Sander
Router / CNC router
Table saw
Band Saw
Drill / Drill press
OK, so fun video I heard the phrase ‘hand made’ at least once. Tools I saw.
Orbital sanders
CNC machine
Router
Drill
All hand made means to me is they used their hands instead of their feet. If they didn’t use tools they’d be insane / out of business.
So Fender uses more tools / automation for it’s cheaper guitars and higher end companies like Mayones spend more time hand finishing.
@howard was right as usual it’s a meaningless expression.
Still cool video, I really enjoyed the tour.
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Cool, glad you dug it. It’s well produced.
As for the term “handmade,” words are and have always been fungible — often a highly imperfect way for imperfect beings to describe what sometimes, to some, passes for near-perfection in an imperfect world.
So some don’t buy the term handmade as legit? OK.
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thanks for the shoutout @Al1885 — i am not even remotely in the same country as luthiers, never mind being in the same neighborhood but i appreciate the vote of confidence.
agree with @howard: handmade is a meaningless term that is almost entirely about marketing.
to the original post, to me this is about imperfection and intent. something that always went over like a lead balloon during my furniture MFA was when i would say “if i wanted it to be perfect, i would not make it out of wood.” i see wood is a natural material filled with inconsistencies and imperfections. it moves how it wants, it splinters and cracks how it wants, it does what it wants to do. i think of the intent of handmade the same way: the hand of the maker is evident in the final product, and part of that hand is ambiguity and imperfection. so when i think of ‘handmade’ i think of a luthier responding and reacting to the material itself in a way that a CNC or other automated process can’t.
ultimately i see “handmade” as really only mattering to one person: the luthier. they choose to “hand make” an instrument in a way that takes a lot more time, a lot more skill, and a lot more intent than a machine, and they do this because they enjoy it/want to do it this way.
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Side note - Did you see the guys sanding with the orbital sander and no respirator!
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This part I agree with.
And, from the hands of an expert luthier, because the instrument emerges as a work of art.
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There is plenty of process automation in which no human hand touches a product from input of basic materials through finished packaged product.
No musical instrument in the range we are discussing that I am aware of is like that.
My Indonesian-made Yamaha, made in a mass production factory by people with their hands, is one of the highest quality instruments I have played. It’s better than my MIJ Fenders, which were also production instruments, but probably by FujiGen and probably with more hand time on them.
Was it carved from a live tree by handy druids and forest nyads very skilled with woodworking? Well, no. But it’s still up there in quality with some of the really high quality instruments I have tried.
Handmade has a colloquial meaning, in the sense that @MikeC and others are using, and we all understand (and generally agree with, despite joking around) what you guys are saying, don’t worry. Handmade has another meaning when used by corporations trying to sell things, and it is meaningless.
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Yes, we know. And this is why I will buy them, as I mentioned - unlikely to have been exposed to organophosphates. The difference between various organophosphate pesticides and literal nerve gas is kind of small, and that is in fact how they work - they are basically nerve agents for bugs.
But depending on region, even that is not guaranteed as there is varying regulation of the term “organic”, and unlike the Vegans, there are no time travelling cops that enforce it. It really is largely a marketing term, though granted less meaningless than “handmade”, when used by big corps.
Organic also has a literal meaning for chemists, which is what @MC-Canadastan and I were geekjoking about. It simply means the chemistry of carbon compounds (and usually, but not always, hydrocarbons). Humor is basically the only way I use my college major any more, sorry when it slips out 
Organic food needs its version of the Vegan Police.
I always liked a meme i saw years ago that said something like “shouldn’t we call natural and organic food simply ‘food’; and shouldn’t we force all the rest to label everything that’s in or done to it?”
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I want an organic Twinkie
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I am sure they exist
I want a handmade organic Twinkie. 
Hey, no oven, bowls, spoons, aprons or chef’s hats allowed, dammit!
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I actually used to have a Twinkie baking pan, and a damn good recipe for homemade/handmade/I guess you could make them organic if that was important to you Twinkies.
Tasty, but not worth the effort, lol.
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Absolutely! I’m in the custom made to order industry. Each of my dish is made to order by hand from start to finish. Although, they are made by hand with the aid of modern technology I no longer have to start the fire each day.
It’s quite difficult to define the term in a certain industry. We, people here in the US want things to be made and done here and if and when possible made with the most care and expertise. CNC machine is not what make the instrument great, even if you have the right files to CNC your dream bass it’s not a push of a button or a command execution either.
I bought a CNC machine back in 2021 it’s still has not been set up yet and I just bought the CAD/CAM software for them too. The one I bought was the from NextWave CNC and the software is the Vectric Aspires software, both are not cheap other they are not your typical Amazon DIY crap they are pro and hobby level stuff. Doing what a typical CNC works like bowls and signs is pretty simple but doing anything string instruments with all kinds of curves and radius, well you get the point.
It doesn’t matter what machine a luthier uses to create the instrument as long as he/she delivers the final product to you it’s a custom craftsmanship in my book, I’d even call it handmade.
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Next time any of you come here, try a Tokyo Banana. It’s basically a really good Twinkie with banana creme filling.
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Oh yeah! I’d love some of those.
We do homemade marshmallows and I agree with you, it’s not worth the clean up efforts, lol.
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I totally would have loved to last time except for the whole gluten / dairy thing I can’t have, lol.
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