I dont know if we're ever really going to know the true history of domestic fluid steel. I chased some of this down some time ago and it was a honey comb of dead ends. Basically, there ar several circumstantial things which in their totality are 'suggestive'...
1. It's known that Krupp (I forget which patriarch) came to the U.S. for the 1893 Chicago Fair, and that he met with American steel execs on that trip.
2. Shortly after this time 1 or 2 American companies (Bethleham was one) began offering improved fluid steel for railroad rails.
3. Not long thereafter several new 'trade names' of fluid steel began to be marketed by American gun companies.
4. This accelerated greatly after the outbreak of WW1.
So what can we make of this? Well, we know the importation of steel would have been highly regulated.
So...was did Krupp license their process to U.S. (and others?) companies, settling on making SOME money rather than suffer defending their patents internationally?
Did American (and others) essentially ramp up producing Krupp recipe steel after WW1 outbreak in violation of Krupp's patents, because they were a war enemy?
Any of of this is possible, but Im only speculating. I would definitely like to know the compositional differences between Krupp and LC Smith "Armor" steel, or Remington "Ordnance" steel, Lefever "Imperial" steel, etc.
They all came out in a similar time frame. Were they Krupp recipe sourced elsewhere, unatributed, because the Krupp's were kraut collaborators? Who the heck knows.
I gave up looking. What cant be denied is Krupp made damn good steel, but that their war time efforts in WW1 and WW2 give them a dubious place in history.
I own an E grade lefever with Krupp barrels...it is fantastic.
NDG
