smallbrownbear

At the breakup of the USSR there was a military contractor who had a great quantity of titanium and no orders for anything made of titanium... He wanted to sell it for real money, which meant export. However, the bureau in charge of exports told him that titanium was a strategic material and refused him an export permit.

It would happen that he was in the same town as a manufacturer of agricultural tools, who also had men, machines and no orders.

The titanium sheet was sent from the first plant to the the second, and run through the drop forge, equipped with the die that they use to make shovels.

Problem gone... First plant has real money, second plant has work, export bureau issued export permit for a hundred thousand titanium shovels as the regular export item...agricultural implements.

Most went to a titanium processing plant in Germany, a few turned up on Ebay a year or two ago. I almost bought one to hang on the wall...I liked the story.

I have another 'international government bureaucracy is fun" story about a man who couldn't get a similar export license for peacock feathers from India (no raw materials---only finished goods permitted)...he had a man there loosely stitch them to cheap burlap and call them 'rugs', and another man in Chicago cut the running stitch and threw away the burlap...but I will save that one for later.

Best of day to all ... I could use the hammer...thanks.