Do you mind elaborating a bit?
Are you saying engineers and scientists are unable to analyze the ingredients in steel? If so, read about the German company Krupp. How they made the best battleship armor for a century. But by WWII other countries - Japan, US, Britian, France, etc discovered their own ingredients and manufacturing techniques that not only equaled it but significantly improved on it?
Are you saying that Swedish steel - known for centuries as the very best stuff hasn't been replaced by technological advances so that the iron from from Australia, Brazil, China, Ukraine, Russia, India and
Canada - the 7 countries with the largest iron ore reserves - can't be all be equally used.
Are you saying that only Snap On has that "secret formula" that is best for sockets and no one else knows it, can discover it or improve on it? Are you saying a thing so simple as a combination wrench can't be reverse engineered and copied - even improved upon?
Are you saying that the Big 3 US auto makers are still the very best and Toyota BMW or Leyland can't ever catch up?
Are you suggesting the Apollo trip to the moon was the zenith of engineering and technology that has never been equalled or improved on?
I have no beef with Snap On. I have no beef with Snap On lovers. If you think they are the best, buy them. I'll be happy for you.
But please, please elaborate - with actual engineering and scientific facts, how Snap On can make tools no one else can.
And please don't tell me more opinions or that they are made with fairy dust and magic.
Steel is complicated.
There are various ways to purify steel to get the exact alloy that is wanted, and most “competent” steel producers are capable of many of those processes, but all of those processes cost money.
For any entity (ie. Manufacturer) purchasing steel, usually, the final decisions are made because of factors such as cost per pound (or probably cost per ton), as well as the steel producers ability to deliver steel on the schedule needed.
Manufacturers of small, “high value” items can afford to spend extra to get the exact steel they want, but large manufacturers of lower value items will usually accept steel that is “close enough”, if the price is better, and delivery more reliable.
As far as Sweden goes, before modern refining techniques were available, the Swedish steel had advantages because of the ore, which was low in Phosphorus and Sulfur, and therefore produced a better steel, more easily.
Sweden also invested a lot in technology to ensure their steel industry remained at a very high level of skill, in production techniques and alloys.
Certain other areas of the world such as the United States, and parts of Europe also invested heavily is the steel industry, both in facilities, and refining techniques, but the steel ores in different areas needed to be processed differently.
As for China, in modern day China, there are supposedly three or four steel producers that can produce “world class” steel, but those producers supposedly only want to sell large orders of steel, so the better Chinese made steel is usually only available to customers able to purchase large steel orders, which for tool manufacture would likely be entities like Stanley, and Apex tools, and maybe some of the large Taiwanese tool manufacturers.
Any other customers wanting access to the high end Chinese steel, would need to be able to split steel orders with multiple partners, or have connections to piggy back off of other steel orders.
As far as forging tools, and heat treating, while to a certain extent it may seem, and be “simple”, there are lots of variations in the way steel can be processed to produce different results.
How hot steel is heated before forging, and in what type of furnace, for instance, can affect the grain structure of the steel, as can the atmosphere that heated steel its in, since steel loses carbon to air as it sits in a highly heated state. This loss of carbon can then potentially affect final surface hardness, since steel depleted of carbon tends not to be easily hardened.
Some manufacturers like Snap-On use “cold forging” for certain tools like pliers.
The cold forging process requires the initial steel to be annealed, and then run thru a series of dies, that progressively shape the steel, allowing for a more precise final forging, but the process is supposedly expensive to set up.
Most sockets are actually cold forged nowadays though.
After forging, tools still need finish grinding of some or all surfaces, which depending on tool, and manufacturer, can be done with anything from an abrasive tumbler, or belt sander, to old fashioned grinding wheels, or precision bonded diamond wheels on a CNC setup.
Heat treating is another set, which could vary from companies that don’t bother (I think Torque Test Channel ran into one or two wrenches like this) to running the tools thru a continuous oven, or thru a liquid salt bath, or a vacuum heat treating oven, etc.
In addition to overall heat treating, induction heat treating or spot heat treating of certain areas of a tool are common for tools like jaws and cutting edges of pliers.
Extra hardening of tools can also be done by the use of case hardening treatments applied to tools before heat treating.
As far as platings go, some manufacturers just use nickel, and others use various types of chrome, or chrome over nickel, and as you mentioned, the applications of these platings is not always the same thickness.
These different plating thicknesses can then cause variations in tool tolerances, since many tool manufacturers produce both cheaper and more expensive tool brands, and the dies and cutting broaches are likely used for high end and lower end tools, with plating thicknesses likely causing differences in tool tolerances.
There are plenty of other possible differences as well.
). Vices are there for pleasure whether that is having a couple beers after work, a line of coke, 6 hookers on your birthday, spending way too much / too little for a tool.
I know what they are and where they are now. And where they came from.