It was late November in Northern Italy, and everything was coming up vinegar oil and high-performance cars for Cory Sanderson and the 11 other members of his Yankee armada.

The process of forging metal into shapes possesses a surprisingly long and storied history. For example, the method of hot rolling can trace its protracted existence all the way back to an enigmatic Italian polymath named Leonardo da Vinci (you may have heard of him), who reportedly invented the rolling mill one lazy day in the 1400s.