More than two people are following along.
The French adopted fluid steel tube sets rather quickly. A big part of this was the fact that they could be produced in country, and they would no longer be stuck with Belgian Damascus tubes. While the idea of masking sources is a good one, provincial pride would just as soon not wanted there to be anything to mask, and the notion that another Frenchman was getting a payday instead of someone else.
When I was in France, circa 1997, the steel company was a cooperative, with end users of the product being part owners. It had always been that way.
Best,
Ted
