By hand
Posted by R. Berg on February 07, 2002
In Reply to: Meanings of phrases posted by Bruce Kahl on February 07, 2002
: : by hand
: A carpenter made a piece of furniture entirely by hand. To do
something by hand means not to use a tool.
Not so: carpenters use hand tools. Even using power tools (an electric
saw, for instance) might not disqualify the product as a "handmade"
one. The definition is fuzzy, but generally the alternative to something
made by hand is something made by machine or mass-produced.
(See Bruce's post for other answers.)