The issue also involves some rather arbitrary decisions regarding which tools/machinery is or is not included. For example, there has been a lot of machinery in use in the gun industry from quite a long time ago. Using my sensiblities, the guns I would call handmade include a handful of those who recreate the American Longrifle (eg Herschel House and a few others) from scratch. And a very few like Wells (now deceased) from Prescott, AZ who started his rifles with a block of steel and a blank of wood using a milling machine, lathe and an old armory rifling machine. Well's work was clearly "Best" quality and,on a different plane, so is Houses.