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> This really discomfits some people, so they get very creative at inventing reasons Nah, I think you're extrapolating to far. It's just a connoisseur mentalit

> This really discomfits some people, so they get very creative at inventing reasons Nah, I think you're extrapolating to far. It's just a connoisseur mentality -- the same as for wine, scotch, guns, etc. It can be annoying, it's often untrue, but it taps into the same desire to be self-righteous that's buried in your post, and many of our day-to-day actions. Please don't interpret the previous sentence / paragraph to mean "you're self righteous!" in the usual insulting conversational sense. I think it's a widespread human desire. I.e. I often bristle at someone's behaviour and am about to school them before I thoroughly understand the situation. Actually guns are an outlier -- many arms manufacturers use the language of authenticity, but then mass-produce their products. There may be a little touch of unconscious racism re: China, but that's a society-wide thing, not some defect / choice of these craftspeople. I.e. there was a time when goods manufactured in China were crap. Now they're not, but the bias remains.

gaustin 15y ago
Actually, there are custom gun makers. There is somewhat less room for "handmade" when it comes to firearms, but they still get pretty creative where possible. I don't know any makers personally, but I do belong to the same blacksmithing club as a guy who deals in authentically custom guns and knives: http://www.hallowellco.com/ http://www.hallowellco.com/ I'm not a collector, but I love to go look at the pictures.
- sk5t 15y ago
  You might take Ed Brown, Les Baer, and Wilson Combat as examples of semi-custom handguns; there's a lot of hand-fitting involved to make sure everything snicks together just so, and the smiths who worked on a piece are often named on your order sheet and/or sign it... Long guns are all over the map, with all manner of fancy inlaid double shotguns appealing to the Anglophiles, and a thriving cottage industry of long-range precision rifle smiths.
  - rdl 15y ago
    There are also lots of semi to totally custom accessory manufacturers, like Milt Sparks (great leather holsters). The mass-produced alternatives (stuff like Blackhawk SERPA, Safariland, etc.) are functionally similar, but different. And then the whole cottage or even at-home industry of custom loaded ammunition for extreme range shooting. Using factory components (although sometimes custom turned bullets made out of solid alloys), but selected and assembled to spec.
neworbit 15y ago
There are all sorts of cottage industries in the firearms business. My midwestern and southern relatives are extremely enthused about such things. Mostly it amounts to "customizing a stock weapon with aftermarket accessories" as far as I can tell - personalizing it and suiting it to your tastes and build. I'm not much of a gun guy - I can tell that this one has a better scope or a more comfortable grip, but the rest of it's kind of lost on me. I think it's much the same sort of mindset as the folks who who like to customize their vehicles. In some cases, it's the same people, but if my relatives are any indication the overlap between those two circles isn't that high.

gaustin 15y ago

Actually, there are custom gun makers. There is somewhat less room for "handmade" when it comes to firearms, but they still get pretty creative where possible. I don't know any makers personally, but I do belong to the same blacksmithing club as a guy who deals in authentically custom guns and knives: http://www.hallowellco.com/ http://www.hallowellco.com/ I'm not a collector, but I love to go look at the pictures.

sk5t 15y ago
You might take Ed Brown, Les Baer, and Wilson Combat as examples of semi-custom handguns; there's a lot of hand-fitting involved to make sure everything snicks together just so, and the smiths who worked on a piece are often named on your order sheet and/or sign it... Long guns are all over the map, with all manner of fancy inlaid double shotguns appealing to the Anglophiles, and a thriving cottage industry of long-range precision rifle smiths.
- rdl 15y ago
  There are also lots of semi to totally custom accessory manufacturers, like Milt Sparks (great leather holsters). The mass-produced alternatives (stuff like Blackhawk SERPA, Safariland, etc.) are functionally similar, but different. And then the whole cottage or even at-home industry of custom loaded ammunition for extreme range shooting. Using factory components (although sometimes custom turned bullets made out of solid alloys), but selected and assembled to spec.

neworbit 15y ago

There are all sorts of cottage industries in the firearms business. My midwestern and southern relatives are extremely enthused about such things. Mostly it amounts to "customizing a stock weapon with aftermarket accessories" as far as I can tell - personalizing it and suiting it to your tastes and build. I'm not much of a gun guy - I can tell that this one has a better scope or a more comfortable grip, but the rest of it's kind of lost on me. I think it's much the same sort of mindset as the folks who who like to customize their vehicles. In some cases, it's the same people, but if my relatives are any indication the overlap between those two circles isn't that high.