Just thinking out loud, I have recently seen on Instagram a certain local leather business that always mentions how their products are handmade. Yet I have seen they use die cuts and a press machine to cut the leather, sawing machine for stitching. There is no extra work done on the wallet (that is the only thing they showed in full).
That got me thinking - how war would you call something handmade?
If I operate a machine to cut, saw and edge paint leather, is it still handmade?
I mean, there is almost no production process that has been completely taken over by robots, there are humans involved at some stage so everything is handmade.
Thats the kind of the struggle I have going on with the direction I want to go in. I feel like if I buy a few machines to aid in making an item, such as a clicker press like you mentioned for example, that it takes away from the handmade aspect.
This is ever ongoing philosphical leather debate, but If you think about, all leather items are handmade... technically...
I personally would not consider LKG (I am assuming you are talking about him? or maybe OLW, or any other IG Handmade person) being handmade*. But at the same time, it is handmande because all of these machines are operated by a human. That is why I don't ever say my items are Handmade, i say Hand Crafted. It might not make a difference to anyone else, but it does to me.
Also, Handmande in leather is just like "Genuine", it is a marketing trick. There is a shop in my country that sells a Handmade Genuine Leather laptop sleeve for 20$ (If i wanted to make the same one, it would cost me twice that in material alone), and people keep asking me "Why are you more expensive, he sells Genuine Handmande items, are yours made with Genuine leather?", to which i always answer "I sure do hope not!". It is just about educating your customers. I have people in my country who now refuse to buy leather from someone other than me, but it took time.
Basically, for me, no their items are not really handmade (specially that they try to advertise them in a way that says they are), but I don't let that discourage me.
* I am not saying that their products are not good. I have an LKG wallet, and believe me, it is very very well made.
Handmade is really hard to define and unless a robot has made the product from start to finish it has handmade elements to it. So basically everything can be considered handmade.