Michael N.
Well-known member
And you should be proud.
As a group though, luthiers are pretty hand work avoidant. Lots of jigs and production tricks. It's hard to really honestly sell hand work from most shops. Is buffing a spray job hand work? I'm sure it does qualify. It is certainly the sainted workmanship of risk. Building two piece, without hand bending, with forms, and using radial dishes, etc... Just compound the use of non-hand methods, and build in a production mentality. And there is nothing wrong with that.
I don't know where you get the idea that luthiers are 'hand work avoidant'. I'd say that the vast majority of violin makers shy away from power tools, absolute minimal use. Steel string guitar makers tend to employ a fair amount of power tools whereas classical guitar makers seem to be split between those who are largely hand tool and those who are 'tooled up'. There aren't many that are totally hand tool but there are a large number who just use one or two power tools. The only power tool that I use is a bandsaw and quite frankly that sees very, very little work. I use my approach simply because I don't really care for power tools. I don't like using them. The odd thing is that there are makers who employ a lot of power tools, are obviously much more productive but charge a lot more than makers who are all hand tool.