I work at a tool store. I told my boss last week we needed more pruning shears so he did get more of all kinds. Thing is out of all of the shears he brought Two of different kinds say they are made out of Japanese steel. I have never heard of Japanese steel so now i ask you (the public) whats the difference between it and steel from the US or any other country? Those shears are worth more then the ones he gets from Mexico and China and even more than Black and Decker, Fiskars, etc but not more then Corona brand ones.
Well Japan, with democracy and code standards, would be better than China or Mexico, with poorly paid workers and poor standards and poor quality. I don't know why or if its better quality than US steel
I doubt japanese steel has any special quality in its own, but they might just be higher quality shears. For example, Chinese qualities are good depending on what they are, but are usually not professional made with the greatest equipment. Same for Mexico. The company that makes them might just put more effort into making sturdier and sharper shears and thus make them more expensive, but Corona might make them a bit better so they are priced less than Corona's.
After WWII, The United States in order to help the Japanese get back on their feet, sent over the equipment needed to make the newest types of foundries available at the time. While this was a big boon for the Japanese, this meant that most of our foundries were using the older technologies. Japanese Steel then had a bit of a edge on purity than ours did and when you have a purer steel, you have a better product. Since then, they've stayed at the top of the game when it comes to steel. Not only because of the equipment which we have caught up with them on and stay with them on, but because they also have a stronger tradition regarding steel. They have made quality steel blades that were decades ahead of what the West could produce. So you couple that quality of metallurgy with modern techniques we gave them, they took steel making and and ran with it to be one of the top steel producers in the world. Don't get me wrong. We in the US can make Steel as well as they can. But we have ranges of steel. You can get a steel tool that is as good as a Japanese offering (if not more so) but at the same time you can also get a steel tool that is well...Dollar Store crap that'll break if you look at it wrong. While their best may not be better than our best, their worst is often far better quality than our worst. Their lower end products are often our medium grade tools and blades.
