Thanks for the comments, Dennis. I remember when I worked at the Vernon plant of Alcoa during college, helping out in the metallurgical lab, I was told that the most skilled and valued people in the plant were the die sinkers, making both extrusion and forging dies. All steel tooling, and though I don’t remember specific numbers, it was mentioned that tools were rated in how many extrusions or forgings could be made before replacement. Some of the more complex dies had distinctly shorter lives.

Tony Thompson