Robotic wood carving

[matelot]

I'd imagine most people adopting new technology have been accused of "cheating". I'd imagine if Arbtalk existed 2000 years ago there would be a thread complaining about the first person using a metal axe instead of a traditional stone axe.

 

Maybe there are things that can't be carved by hand but can be carved by machine?

[Mike Dempsey]

In any business in order to survive and make progress, you use the best tools and machinery available. If you don't then you stand a good chance of being undercut by your rivals and not making much money.

I don't equate my work to tat and its not been called that to the best of my knowledge.

I also don't sell to garden centres or other retail outlets who knock it out as cheap as possible.

I regularly make wooden items to go along with bottles of malt which sell at £10k or more. It is well designed and well made, it has to be as the standards of my customers are very high. I regularly work with award winning design companies from around the UK and have been involved with projects that have won worldwide design awards. My biggest whisky company customer has been using me for about ten years now and I have carried out about 15 different projects for them. You don't get that by making tat.

I am not knocking people who only use handtools btw. Most of the people using handtools are in a very small niche market with customers who are willing and able to pay top prices. There are also a lot of guys working away in garden sheds only using handtools as a deliberate choice, producing very high quality work for friends and family. If they tried to get their full time employment rate per hour for the amount of hours spent on the work, it would never sell!