[marktwain]

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>> “These small shop workmen are working with scrap” <<

How do you know that?

I can buy an “80%” AR receiver and finish it using the jigs that come with it, and my drillpress; does that make it “scrap?

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I cannot know it for a certainty. People are very ingenious and learn. It is possible that the small shop system in the Phillipines have learned to get reliable grades of steel for their operations.

But the reports that I have read over the years indicated they used scrap steel. That may have changed. On some parts, scrap of nearly any kind would be adequate, on others, the steel type and heat treating could make a significant long term difference.

[editor-surveyor]

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Most of the bogus guns that I have known of come from Brazil, not the Philippines.
Molybdenum and antimony are readily available in east Asia.
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