> I'm curious though, why is US metallurgy consistently top-notch if the processes are inferior?

I really wonder what you're comparing with.

Try some quality surgical steel from Sweden, Japan or Germany and you'll come away impressed. China is still not quite there but they are improving rapidly, Korea is already there and poised to improve further.

Metal buyers all over the globe are turning away from the US because of the effects of the silly tariffs but they were not going there because the quality, but because of the price.

The US could easily catch up if they wanted to but the domestic market just isn't large enough.

And as for actual metallurgy knowledge I think russia still has an edge, they always were good when it came down to materials science, though they're sacrificing all of that now for very little gain.