handcrafted

[Ronald Butters]

Well, yeah, since "handcrafted" basically means 'skillfully made', any number of things could be called "handcrafted"; that is not the same thing as '(entirely) hand-made'. If Ghia used :"stamps and presses" to make there products, they are scarcely 'handmade'. Likewise suits made on any kind of assembly line.

My point is this:

"Handcrafted" today and "handcrafted" in 1952 do not appear to mean much different things, though it is certainly possible that means of "crafting" things may have changed owing to technological innovation and different cultural perspectives on "craft."

JL began this thread by implying (or so it seemed to me) that the OED was missing some new definition of "handcrafted." I say no: the commercial use is not all that different from 1952, and in any case the meaning that JL is looking for is derivable with no leap of the imagination from the meaning that the OED has already given.

On Dec 27, 2010, at 8:02 PM, James Smith wrote:

> Unless you mean "handcrafted" denotes made without tools, I have no trouble accepting that the 4 items listed could have, in fact, been handcrafted in 1952.  It may not have actually been so, but it is not beyond credible belief.  Even today, a cheap man's suit is still largely handcrafted.  Sure Ghia would have used stamps and presses to shape the carrozzeria, but producing a finish worthy of the Ghia name would have involved a lot of hand work, a lot of crafting by hand.  Same with the crystal and watch.

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