My father told me a variation on this some 30 years ago where a US
company boasted of its small tubing to a UK company. A sample was sent
to the UK company who promptly drilled a hole through the US tube and
feed an even smaller tube through the hole then sent it back. My father
and I are british so maybe he had a bias on the story.

Jim Stewart wrote:

Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

Does anyone know the story and is it true?