Why would someone spend $75 on a handmade product when they can find something similar online for $25?
It’s a fair question.
In a world where you can order almost anything with a few clicks and have it sitting on your doorstep in two days, handmade products have to offer something more than simply being handmade.
For me, that comes down to the materials, the craftsmanship, the details, and the person behind the product.
It Starts With the Material
A good handmade product starts with good material.
When I’m working with walnut, cherry, maple, white oak, or another hardwood, I’m not just grabbing a board and cutting it into a shape. I’m looking at the grain, the character, the color, and how that particular piece of wood will work for the product I’m making.
Wood is a natural material, so no two pieces are exactly alike. That means every finished product has its own character.
Those small differences are part of what makes working with real wood so rewarding.
The Craftsmanship Is in the Details
A finished piece can look simple.
That's often the point.
But getting something simple to look right can take a surprising amount of work.
There’s measuring, cutting, routing, shaping, sanding, assembly, and finishing. Then there’s going back and looking at the piece again to see if something needs to be cleaned up or refined.
A lot of that work isn't obvious when you look at the finished product.
And that's okay.
The goal isn't for someone to look at a piece and immediately see how many hours went into it. The goal is for them to pick it up and think, “This feels right.”
There Are a Lot of Mistakes You Never See
One of the realities of making things by hand is that not everything makes it to the finish line.
There are prototypes that don't work.
There are pieces of wood that get cut wrong.
There are finishes that don't turn out the way you expected.
There are projects that look great in your head and considerably less great once you actually build them.
Those mistakes are part of the process.
They also mean that the final product isn't just the result of the materials used to make it. It's the result of everything learned along the way.
Handmade Means Yours Won't Look Exactly Like Mine
This is one of my favorite things about working with wood.
Even if I make two products from the same design, they won't be identical.
The grain will be different. The color may vary. One piece might have a little more character than another.
That's not a flaw.
That's the reason I don't want handmade products to look like they came out of a factory.
When you buy something handmade, there should be some evidence that a person actually made it.
You're Buying From a Person
When you buy from a small woodworking business, you're not just buying the finished object.
You're buying from the person who came up with the idea, selected the material, designed the product, made the mistakes, built the prototypes, worked through the process, finished the piece, photographed it, listed it, packaged it, and shipped it.
That's a very different experience from buying something that was mass-produced thousands of miles away.
And I'm not saying mass-produced products don't have their place. They absolutely do.
Sometimes you need the $25 version.
But sometimes you want something different.
Something made with a little more thought and a little more attention.
Handmade Doesn't Automatically Mean Better
This is an important one.
Just because something is handmade doesn't automatically make it worth the price.
There are handmade products that aren't well made. There are products that are overpriced. There are makers who cut corners.
The word handmade isn't a substitute for quality.
The materials should be good.
The construction should be solid.
The finish should be done well.
The product should serve a purpose.
And the price should make sense for what you're actually getting.
That's the standard I'm trying to build with BourbonSmoke Woodworking.
So, What Are You Really Buying?
When you buy a handmade product, you're buying more than the wood, the hardware, or whatever materials make up the finished piece.
You're buying the time spent making it.
You're buying the experience behind it.
You're buying something that isn't going to look exactly like the next one.
And hopefully, you're buying something that you'll still enjoy using years from now.
I don't want someone to buy a BourbonSmoke product simply because it has my name on it.
I want them to pick it up, look at it, use it, and understand why I made it the way I did.
That's what makes a handmade product worth buying.
Not simply the fact that someone made it by hand.
It's the fact that someone cared how it turned out.
