TomD
Yeah, virtue would be a tough one. Skill is even getting to be a stretch. There are so many jigs, involved in hand tool work, that a lot of it is pretty deskilled. Which creates a further problem: What is a hand tool. (Back to risk, which is silly in it's own way). A spear plane vs a hand plane, which is a hand tool? Is the Jointmaster a hand tool? And if it isn't why is a plane. What about LV's dovetailing jig? Not just to argue over definitions, but if one comes up with stuff that is hand toolie to make, someone will figure out how to do it with certainty by machine. And revolution of interest in hand tools over the last decade or so is basically a convergence of people getting bored with machines after 50 years, and media that is sophisticated enough that you can learn to use hand tools in ways that are largely deskilled. Which contrary to what people think, was the original idea.

Hand work was a way of making a living, and meeting basic human needs. God died (technically different thing from whether he exists), and so modern life is fundamentally awash, and without purpose. And the same thing happened to hand work, at roughly the same time, and machines took over. Getting value into an area where it never existed is going to be a toughie. Even funnier is seeing people trying to get ultimate value out of these tasks "fly fishing is my religion" kind of antics.