Can a SXS with the hinge pin machined from the solid, (as found in some boxlocks), be considered best?
Machining from the solid leaves no front support for the hinge pin (cross pin in English terminology). If the barrels come off face a solid pin cannot be replaced.
From an engineering point of view, the answer is no. But several makers offered "best" guns with solid cross pins. Which tends to show that best is not a matter of individual features, it was a marketing term more than a technical one.
As Stan enunciated, there is a generally agreed upon definition of a "best" gun. The fact that some makers applied that label to some guns that, whether by design or by workmanship, don't measure up doesn't relegate the term entirely to mere marketing. I would suggest that from a marketing perspective the word "London" had as much or greater impact on price realized by the maker than the word "best". Now THAT is marketing.
