People like to believe that their steel has some mystic quality to it. To this day many buyers believe that their Scandihoovian axe is made with the finest unobtanium in all the Virgo Supercluster.
Lol, thanks for that SP you just made me laugh. Every time I hear some claim like this I think of how Gransfors Bruks uses recycled steel for all their axe heads. And while that's admirable I can't help from having to bite my tongue before I blurt out "no your axe is made from recycled toasters".
I would guess that just because the tool was marketed with gimmicks that while it may not be any better than the next adze it also may not be any worse. I would judge it on its own merits.
There is some rather interesting speculation here into this particular marketing.
"While Roberts is, in all likelihood, correct that this is not a
reference to the use of electricity as a power/heat source in the
melting/crucible process, I have now come to believe that it is a
reference to electricity in a slightly different sense.
Once I focused on the fact that electr(o) is the combining form
for "electric," I decided to look "electric" up on the Merriam-
Webster website. The entry (somewhat edited) is:
*****************
Main Entry: elec·tric
Function: adjective
Etymology: New Latin electricus produced from amber by friction,
electric, from Medieval Latin, of amber, from Latin electrum amber,
electrum, from Greek Elektron; akin to Greek ElektOr beaming sun
Date: 1675
****************
In other words, one of the characteristics of amber (as we call it
today) was the production of static electricity when rubbed with
fur. While the use of "electro" as a prefix could have been an
indirect reference to the colour of amber (the material's other
major characteristic), I think it much more likely that it was a
reference to what they believed was the efficacy of the flux
(borax) to draw out (attract) impurities and form a slag in
refining the steel.
People at that time were taken with the "magical" properties of
electricity. After all, Michael Faraday had demonstrated the
practicality of producing electricity with an electromagnet in 1831.
Now to "muddy" the waters a bit. At the last minute I remembered
my copy of an 1827 _Critical Pronouncing Dictionary_ by John Walker.
Being somewhat contemporaneous with this usage of electro, I
decided to see if it had anything:
"ELECTRE ... Amber; a mixed metal"
Being a "pronouncing" dictionary, this tome is a bit short, and
sometimes suspect, on definitions, and this entry is typical.
Rather provocative though?"
