Beating a dead horse, and adhering to strict definition of a tube, if a maker received the beginnings of a tube in any other state than bar steel, he was not a barrel/tube maker. There is some gray area or nexus of the universe situation where a tube was sourced with a pilot hole, but if any boring or polishing was performed prior to delivery to a maker, he was not a tube maker. Regarding makers/retailers, my goal is to attribute effort where effort is due by chipping away or eroding the fantasy/fallacy that a maker/retailer performed all tasks in house. If you sourced, say you sourced(its OK) and the British makers were not immune to this practice. The sourcing of specific mechanics or talent pools is going to establish a quality modell, which should not just be purely based on name only. Makers/retailers for the most part functioned as merely quality control.
Kind Regards,
Raimey
rse
