Incidentally, I sometimes wonder how safe (compared to today's standards) the really old Australian-made blades were, i.e. back in the 1960s? I believe Southern Cross manufactured their own blades for instance in the Toowoomba Foundry. I suspect that by today's standards they would not be up to scratch.
Then there was the widespread and popular recycling of blades in the old days: resharpening, cleaning up old bolts, washers and nuts and re-using them. My dad would re-use the blades until they were only half the size of new ones, and the bolts would almost completely lose their heads before he would change them. I can recall him bending blades and hammering them back out straight again. He was not the only one who did this.
The Chinese do have standards too. Some companies are better than others. I recently purchased some brand name blades with Australian specs. labelled "Made in China".
