The EPA happened.
*Long story short - chemicals are bad - make using them so expensive via hazardous substance regulations mfg's drop them.
No EPA outside of the USA, so foreign makers can still plate.
Domestic mfg's respond by switching to alternative (stainless steel), then put on huge marketing push to tout ss as superior to any plated finish.
Demand for ss grows, and foreign makers respond by tooling up for ss instead of carbon steel.
Some small domestic specialty shops crop up with alternative (maybe better maybe not) process which has EPA's blessing.
Bottom line is that both bright and satin Nickel are late 19th centruy finishes in the 21st century. There's better finishes available for a cheaper price.
Under the bottom line - none look as good as the real deal (either bright or satin Nickel) IMHO. The Browning HP in silver chrome comes close though. It had me "fooled" for a while.
*Obviously this is very short on details. A google search for "plating" will give you many hours of reading.
www.finishing.com is a good place to start.
Followup by searching for the terms and termanology used.
It's interesting to see how a gvt agency like the EPA, with no real justification for being in existance and 100% out of the control of "We the people" has seized so much economic and social power over us.
