Metal recycler yard near me don't sell to us. Unfortunately.
On why steel costs more than actual tools. This is a big United States problem. This problem is much bigger than that.
1. Raw material often costs more than finished products, this is not limited to tools.
Why? There can be many reasons. One of the reasons I can think of is that China wants to sell and sell and sell things again and again. If they sell raw material, US will make higher quality products, so they need to sell it at a price that the US can't produce.
Can China make a better product? Probably, but that's not their strategy. Dollar stores stuff break before they are used, or break after 1 lousy use.
Big problem.
Another reason I can think of is that the US people overworked like ants, have no time for hobby or anything else. Most do not fix their house, their cars. We're made to be robots. It's more efficient that way. Home owner association don't allow us to do much. County rules prevent us to do much (such as having a project car in my county).
So, we consume finished products, vs buying parts or raw materials. Hardware stores such as mom and pop are dying, not only because of Homedepot, it's because we don't consume odd and ends thing anymore. We buy a whole thing. Lots of time, a little thing fails and we don't know how to fix. Calling someone to fix would cost alot partly because they know we don't know, and ask for crazy price. I went to Acehardware the other day, and wish they don't die. They have things that places like Home depots don't have. It's rare and hard to find anything diy these days without going onto the Net and wait for several days.
2. We're a sick country.
Because of repetitive work (assembly line, robotic like work condition), we are over stressed with our mind and our muscle. We can't have hobby or trying to fix our car or our house. So, we're tend to be obese and unhealthy. We're sick. We pay for health cost. We work, we pay tax, pay for all kind of things and have no life.
This is a mess that the US must resolve.
People in this forum are probably few and far in between who try to save their lives with hobby.
People keep saying people in China make $1 an hour, bla bla. That's extremely misleading. Why don't they say how much they make per meal? How much they make per house? Per transport?
How about underage workers? Seriously? I used to work when I was 2nd grade in school. If kids were prevented to work, that's our dead sentence.
The US economists are just way off. Why didn't they look that way? Comparing dollar income is wrong and these Harvard graduates keep repeating them.
We need to see the truth. We need to find a way to bring manufacturing back to this country. We need to give the citizens lives again.