What does the term "Custom" mean to you?

[awa54]

It used to be that a "Custom" item was made to order, quite possibly one of a kind. Then the term started to include items assembled with input from the buyer, and/or modified from a stock form by a skilled craft-person, but not necessarily one of a kind. Now it gets used for almost anything mass produced that isn't "regular stock", and even in some cases for things that *are* regular stock but aren't made by the OEM, in other words "Custom" has becom a default replacement for the term "accessory" or "special edition". It also shows up in the form of many regular run items made by companies that either do or used to make actual custom items at some point in their history.

[MichaelScott]

Custom means, to me, something that is unique whether made by human hand or CNC robotics.

[awa54]

Custom means, to me, something that is unique whether made by human hand or CNC robotics.

Unique as in "I own the single example of this item extant on the earth", rather than unique as in, "this custom titanium pocket clip, stamped out by the hundreds or thousands, was made specifically to fit my (insert brand name here) knife"?

[SpyderEdgeForever]

Custom means, to me, something that is unique whether made by human hand or CNC robotics.

I would agree with this definition. When it comes to a custom knife in particular, I tend to think of a design that the customer has requested, or, selected from a pool of designs the maker has already come up with. This is opposed to hand made, which would not necessarilly be a designer the customer thought of, but, what was made using hand operations such as hand forging and hand grinding, that kind of thing.

As an example: Would you all call Randall made knives custom or hand made? I say hand made, even though you can pick certain features such as guards, handle materials, and other things, within limits set by Randall Knives. But they will not, as far as I know, accept a specific new design of a knife from a customer and make it to order.

[tvenuto]

Custom means, to me, something that is unique whether made by human hand or CNC robotics.

I do not think custom means unique per se. Custom means made to my specifications, i.e. it was customized for me. I think it would extend this to mean that the particular build would not exist except for my order, which necessitates a minimum number of possibilities. That is, just because I specify the exterior and interior colors of my car, I would not say that's custom because that build would exist anyway, since there are relatively few possibilities. I would say that a Chipotle burrito has a sufficient number of options to consider the burrito I get to be "custom built" for me.

I have a pair of custom-built boots. They are made to my specifications but there is nothing stopping someone else from building the same exact pair. Now, mine are also custom-lasted for my feet, but it's possible still that there is another person out there with feet similar enough to end up with the same boots. I still consider them custom.

Of course, everyone is free to have their own definition, I just quoted yours because our definition is subtly different.

[MacLaren]

To me, it means made to order, a one off, done by hand, or as much as possibly by hand.

[MichaelScott]

Custom means, to me, something that is unique whether made by human hand or CNC robotics.

Unique as in "I own the single example on this item extant on the earth", rather than unique as in, "this custom titanium pocket clip, stamped out by the hundreds or thousands, was made specifically to fit my (insert brand name here) knife"?

Exactly. As in, like no other.