What is considered a "handmade" knife?

[Sep]

The only distinction I care about is whether it's custom or production. Either one can involve manual processes.

 

[rayban]

Electricity is a wonderful thing, and power tools enables a knife maker to make one more efficiently. The end result is still a hand made knife.

 

[Peregrin]

Electricity is a wonderful thing, and power tools enables a knife maker to make one more efficiently. The end result is still a hand made knife.

My thoughts exactly. :thumbup:

 

[topher]

People seem to have a whole range of definitions of handmade when it comes to knives.

Yep. Which means that you will never get any sort of universal agreement, and any attempt to do so will just end in anger, frustration, and annoyance. No matter what anyone says, people will still come up with their own opinion of what "hand made" means. Personally, I think it's an outdated term that no longer makes much sense. It's too general and too ephemeral. You're better off ignoring it, treating it as broadly as reasonably possible, or using a more specific term.

Personally, "handmade" means that only one person, using a minimum number of power tools, usually just a grinder or sander, works on the knife from start to finish and does not include precut blanks or kits.

So a pair of knifemakers working in a partnership can't both work on the same knife as still call it "handmade"? What if one of them specializes in blade forming, and the other in handle work? Do they have to heat treat it themselves to keep the "handmade" moniker?

I have a Graham Brothers custom Razel that they say was handmade, but I don't know which of the two brothers made it. Or whether they worked on it together. Can I still call it handmade?

Ah, well. I think I'll just call it a kick-ass knife. Everything else. . . It's all just silly semantics. ;-)

 

[elkins45]

I have a Graham Brothers custom Razel that they say was handmade, but I don't know which of the two brothers made it. Or whether they worked on it together. Can I still call it handmade?

Why, does only one of them have hands?

What about the term 'handmade' implies it was made by the hands of only a single person?

 

[topher]

Why, does only one of them have hands?

What about the term 'handmade' implies it was made by the hands of only a single person?

That was explicitly listed as part of the "definition" given by the original poster, and quoted in my comment. I was trying to point out how silly that seemed to me. Here is their comment again, as quoted:

Personally, "handmade" means that only one person, using a minimum number of power tools, usually just a grinder or sander, works on the knife from start to finish and does not include precut blanks or kits.