Al,
1. I'm happy for your considering me "your friend". As a matter of fact, it's amazing, and gratifying, to see that over the years a friendship has developed among the frequentors of this site. Remember when Chuck Meadows suffered from cancer? All of us who believe in a living God, no matter the formal religion we're member of, raised our prayers for him. And when he passed away, countless messages (including mine) were sent to his widow.
2. On my posting above, I've not stressed conveniently that the way I used to qualify welders back in my days of erector engineer was performed not only with the client's approval, but also with the client's strong cooperation.
In fact, before doing anything, the client and me sat together to discuss in detail in which manner the qualification was going to be carried out, and when it was under way both the client and me watched carefully the results. So, the final approval was signed by the client and me. Of course, that qualification wasn't valid before AWS, ASME, API etc. etc., but was valid for the client and my company, and this was the important thing.
You see, both the client and my company (contractor), knew that Certified Welding Inspectors approved by AWS, ASME etc, can be found at every street corner in the U.S.A. or Japan, but are as rare as white flies here in third world, underdeveloped countries. That's why I warned first world, developed engineers to spend a couple of years in a third world, underdeveloped country (and the more underdeveloped the better), before blaming me.
Giovanni S. Crisi