I had a friend in college who majored in mathematics. In one upper level class they had to prove "1" and "0" Boy am I glad we're not starting there!!!
But I think you are right, Ray, we need to start somewhere and start small.
Going back to your original list, "sole authorship" is probably the most encompassing definition in knifemaking.
"
Sole Authorship - all definitions below require that you and only you
make all the parts of your knife and do all the
operations involved in making it unless otherwise
noted."
The maker 1) forms the shape and bevels of the blade, 2) heat treats and finishes the blade, 3)attaches the handle and associated hardware, 4) adds any embellishment (if any) including engraving, scrimshaw, etc. and 5) constructs and fits a sheath, if one is to be provided.
At a bare minimum, a person who considers him/herself to be a
maker of handmade knives must perform the shaping and beveling of the blade, the final finish, and the attachment of the handle and associated hardware. Notice I leave off heat treat, as I suppose that there are a large number of knifemakers who send out there blades for HT, and we don't want to exclude many legitimate makers from our definition. Those who can, do, and those who don't, send their blades out. We can discuss collaboration at another time, but a knifemaker performs the operations that decide the shape and appearance of the finished knife.
Obviously, a person that makes a sheath for another is a sheathmaker, a person that engraves is an engraver, and of course the scrimshander. The person/company that performs the heat treatment is the heat treater. These are all somewhat obvious to us, but the point I am trying to make here is that these are all actions performed on a knife made by another maker.
So, what about a person that installs handles on the knife of another? Are they a custom handle maker? David Yellowhorse described his work as custom knife inlay (I didn't notice anywhere on his website where he refers to himself as a knifemaker).
Moving on to some of the other terms you listed--hand made, hand crafted, etc. I think these terms you want to use to describe the general method in which the blade itself is formed (e.g. forged vs. stock removal, power vs. no power). These terms I think are too easily confused, and maybe it is better to just say what we are doing:
Forged neo-tribal blade: A knife blade in which no power tools were used to make the blade. The shape and bevels are 75% formed by the use of hammer percussion on the hot blade. Stock removal is kept to a minimum and is used only for the purposes of finishing the blade and not for forming the bevels or the shape of the blade itself.
Forged blade: As above, but power tools (including trip/power hammer, belt grinder, electric drill, etc.) may be used in the process.
We can come up with similar definitions for stock removal knives.
So, instead of saying it is a hand made, hand crafted, or bench made knife, the maker should say, this is a forged neo-tribal knife. . .