Well my last post seemed to result in doubling the number of these pages. And a lot of specific information is being shared, always a good thing. But my questions were more general in nature.
Some of your own comments since have included: do you feel the makers got away with one so to speak by outsourcing?, when you talk about English guns their makers or their purveyors you have to address each one individually., why does it seem like you want to perpetuate the myth that many or most of the makers were not making guns?, I guess I don't understand the point you're trying to make?, etc.
Here are my reasons. When I first started out asking a similar question on a post on English brands some time ago I got chastised for even asking if all were actually makers. I thought at the time that those in the know would simply respond by saying that “probably” of the well known names calling themselves maker that “perhaps” maybe X % actually made a fair portion of their components, maybe Y % primarily sourced available components to finish and assemble, and maybe Z % just had complete finished guns made for them with their name on it. Instead of any direct factual responses, all the answers were either evasive, diversionary, defensive, justifying, protective, etc. Similar response if the same question was addressed on any current English brands. It was like a political finger pointing debate rather than knowledgeable people sharing factual information. No matter how I rephrased the question it was impossible to get a direct answer, just like in politics.
So I decided to try again in a new post to see if this time around the question might actually get some direct answers, but the result was the same. So while I started out perhaps naively believing that nearly all 19th and 20th century English makers who labeled themselves as such did at the very least source, finish and assemble components, I am not sure anymore.
But I will admit that once I finally figured out that all these names were just revered as the gods of the gun world, and that the old paint can had a bees nest in it because those gods can’t ever be questioned, I just couldn’t resist kicking that can a couple of times as this thread progressed.
P.S. … at the end of the day it really doesn’t matter to me if 99% of the English makers made nearly all of their parts, or if 99% did nothing more than unwrap and wipe the grease off the guns that were made with their name on it by someone else. If I wanted an English gun to shoot I would buy the gun that I both liked and could afford, and not the name. The name would only really matter to me when I wanted to sell it for big $.
