We all know that everything is being outsourced to wherever in the world it can be manufactured cheapest.
Sourdough,
Did you by any chance have access to the batch certificate ? They may be Lincoln electrodes but they may have been manufactured under license in Nepal from recycled baked bean tins !!!!
As a pipe-welder I spent years welding the KOBE LB-52U (E7016) made in Japan and they were the best electrode I ever used.
Moved up the food chain to Welding Co-ordinator years later on a major power station rebuild and we rejected 10 pallets of KOBE LB-52U electrodes - every electrode chock full of porosity.
Turned out they were "outsourced" and were actually manufactured under license in Singapore.
I think you can forget the old saying - you get what you pay for. Now you think you are paying for a reputable name or brand and it could very well be made wherever in the world the sweatshop laws are least policed.
And before everyone jumps in and throws stones at the Asian countries for poor quality - who is responsible for this ? The bean-counters in the major American (or Australian or wherever) companies who outsource the work without putting expat supervision in to oversee the work.
The third world countries cannot produce quality acceptable to first world unless they are taught/shown but the bean counters do not care about that.
This link is a few years old now but it shows Lincoln electrodes are manufactured in China, Colombia, Indonesia, Holland, Britain and Venezuela (as well as presumably the US ????)
Sorry for my rant,
Cheers,
Shane
https://www.cdlive.lr.org/information/default.asp?preOpen=Approvals