detecting stainless steel.

Hugo de Stonham · Post by **Hugo de Stonham** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:18 am

I have some wire that I get at work regularly and I was wondering, How does one tell if someting is stainless steel?

Grendal

Steve S. · Post by **Steve S.** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:34 am

Many grades of stainless steel are non-magnetic. So if you put a magnet to it and it does not stick, it could be stainless steel.

Of course, it could also be aluminum, titanium, etc.

Another easy way is to take a small piece of it, clean it well with soapy water, and dip it in some salt water. Leave it to dry over night. If it is mild steel it will be quite rusty by morning.

Steve

polarbearforge · Post by **polarbearforge** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 10:40 am

I have a few bottles of the gun blue touch up that I use to help too. If it blues real easily and real dark, it's not stainless.

Jamie

Konstantin the Red · Post by **Konstantin the Red** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 11:31 am

Since SS wire is just about always a 300-series SS alloy such as 304 or 316, it will likely be nonmagnetic.

400-series stainless is rather weakly magnetic, about half the magnetism of mild. I don't think they make wire of this stuff, though. 400-series steels get used for turbine blades and cutlery.

A sudden tangentially OT thought: the MiG-25 Viktor Belenko rode to Japan had a lot of stainless steel in the aircraft skin -- they noticed it was starting to rust a bit in the Hokkaido rain, so it wasn't particularly stainless. They stuck a magnet on the airplane and then looked at each other in surprise. The Foxbat is a fast machine at top speed, but it's not an accelerator; it's heavy like a dump truck. Wonder what grade of stainless that was?