Outrider27
Gold $$ Contributor
Different Types of Stainless Steel
- Thread starter jds holler
- Start date
body centered cubic ?
carlsbad
Lions don't lose sleep over the opinions of sheep.
Monel, is copper nickel, it is what coins are made of now, and has nothing to do with stainless steel.
300 series steels, austenitic ss, are generally non-magnetic and are the most common steel used for corrosion resistance.
most useful 400 series stainless is martensitic and is magnetic, although not quite as much as carbon steel. These steels include 410 and 416 and includes gunbarrels and most actions.
Ferretic steels are magnetic. I see them as kindof an upgrade to austenitic--slightly stronger although maybe a little less corrosion resistent. Easy to machine work. So if your kitchen stainless is magnetic, it is likely ferretic.
PH or precipitation hardening steels are magnetic, are more heat treatable and can be made, at some expense, at a very high strength. However, this strength depends on the heat treat so you must buy them from a reputable supplier with material certs. 17-4PH is the most common. Used in some actions.
duplex steel--most common specialty steel, has properties of austenetic and martensitic. Has industrial applications but I'm not aware of use in the gun business. slightly magnetic.
specialty steels: lots of options as companies try to make supermetals. Expensive and not likely to run into them in the kitchen. Mostly government applications where they are spending other people's money.
--Jerry
300 series steels, austenitic ss, are generally non-magnetic and are the most common steel used for corrosion resistance.
most useful 400 series stainless is martensitic and is magnetic, although not quite as much as carbon steel. These steels include 410 and 416 and includes gunbarrels and most actions.
Ferretic steels are magnetic. I see them as kindof an upgrade to austenitic--slightly stronger although maybe a little less corrosion resistent. Easy to machine work. So if your kitchen stainless is magnetic, it is likely ferretic.
PH or precipitation hardening steels are magnetic, are more heat treatable and can be made, at some expense, at a very high strength. However, this strength depends on the heat treat so you must buy them from a reputable supplier with material certs. 17-4PH is the most common. Used in some actions.
duplex steel--most common specialty steel, has properties of austenetic and martensitic. Has industrial applications but I'm not aware of use in the gun business. slightly magnetic.
specialty steels: lots of options as companies try to make supermetals. Expensive and not likely to run into them in the kitchen. Mostly government applications where they are spending other people's money.
--Jerry
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JD, I’ll try to add to the confusion a little. You said something about various household items having different magnetic potentials. “Stainless Steel” metallurgically requires a minimum 14% Chromium. That’s the simple part of the equation, the remaining 86% of components are varied depending on the desired end results and use of the steel. Anything from nails to special steels used by NASA. One of the other components everyone is eluding to is Carbon. Carbon plays a significant amount in the hardening ability of steels. If a steel has 0% carbon, it has little or no capability of being hardened. Different classes of steel, both stainless and chrome molly have various amounts of carbon in them depending on how hard/tough you need the resultant material to be. Your magnet will have various abilities to “stick” depending on the amount of carbon (typically around 0.2 to about 1.6 percent) in the steel is the reason for different pull strengths of the magnet. I hope this somewhat answer’s a couple of questions, but keep in mind there are a lot of other properties in steels that have to be considered as far as hardening, wearability, and toughness that can be achieved. I believe there are a few barrel makers who order large quantities of steel will have it made to their own specifications metallurgically. I am not a metallurgist so don’t take any of this to heart. I have a background in machine tool work, with about 15 years working tool and die and job shop one off parts. I also used to make knives and that is when I really learned a very limited knowledge of metallurgical properties of various steels.
To be considered stainless steel the alloy has to contain a mi i um of 12% chrome.
The stainless most of us see in kitchen sinks and cook ware is the austenitic family known as 18-8. That is 18% chrome and 8% nickel.
This is also the 300 series. The alloy in your sink is probably 302. Most other stainless sheet will be 304. Stainless pipe is usually 304. Very high purity stainless used tubing for semiconductor gases is 316. None of these alloys can be made hard by heat treating. They are worthless for a real knife but they have fairly high corrosion resistance. Under some circumstances 302 is a little bit magnetic. The rest of the 300 family is not magnetic. 304 is also available in bar, rod and plate for weldments and machined parts. 304 machines at about 1/3 the speed of carbon steel. The 303 version with sulfur is used for better machining but it corrodes easier.
There are high carbon and botique alloys used to make tooling, surgical instruments and snob knives.
The whole story is available at Carpenter Steel. Look for the down loadable Carpenter Steel Blue Book. You should read the section on alloy selection. Then if you have questions about a specific alloy look up the section on that alloy.
I consider the Blue Book the single best quick reference for baby engineers that need to know about stainless steels.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAAegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw0HS29CyX-suRqSKozgxusH
The downloadable Blue Book is under other resources near the bottom.
https://www.cartech.com/en/alloy-techzone/references/brochures-literature
The stainless most of us see in kitchen sinks and cook ware is the austenitic family known as 18-8. That is 18% chrome and 8% nickel.
This is also the 300 series. The alloy in your sink is probably 302. Most other stainless sheet will be 304. Stainless pipe is usually 304. Very high purity stainless used tubing for semiconductor gases is 316. None of these alloys can be made hard by heat treating. They are worthless for a real knife but they have fairly high corrosion resistance. Under some circumstances 302 is a little bit magnetic. The rest of the 300 family is not magnetic. 304 is also available in bar, rod and plate for weldments and machined parts. 304 machines at about 1/3 the speed of carbon steel. The 303 version with sulfur is used for better machining but it corrodes easier.
There are high carbon and botique alloys used to make tooling, surgical instruments and snob knives.
The whole story is available at Carpenter Steel. Look for the down loadable Carpenter Steel Blue Book. You should read the section on alloy selection. Then if you have questions about a specific alloy look up the section on that alloy.
I consider the Blue Book the single best quick reference for baby engineers that need to know about stainless steels.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAAegQICBAB&usg=AOvVaw0HS29CyX-suRqSKozgxusH
The downloadable Blue Book is under other resources near the bottom.
https://www.cartech.com/en/alloy-techzone/references/brochures-literature
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7887mm08
Silver $$ Contributor
I was in the navy! machinistNot many people even know kmonel exists. Did you ever work submarines?.
holstil, I’m not knowledgeable at all about the powdered steels. For a little information about knife steel you may want to visit this site:
http://knifeinformer.com/discovering-the-best-knife-steel/
One thing about the 440 series of stainless, there are several different grades. If you purchase a nife made of the 440 series, be sure it says “440C”. This is the only one that has any carbon in it, the remainder of the 440 steels are junk with respect to knife making because of the low levels of carbon.
http://knifeinformer.com/discovering-the-best-knife-steel/
One thing about the 440 series of stainless, there are several different grades. If you purchase a nife made of the 440 series, be sure it says “440C”. This is the only one that has any carbon in it, the remainder of the 440 steels are junk with respect to knife making because of the low levels of carbon.
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Ferritic is body-centered cubic; Martensitic is body-centered tetragonal; Austenitic is face-centered-cubic.
dgeesaman
Gold $$ Contributor
Yep that's a good synopsis of common stainless grades.
Where I work, the idea went around that stainless was non-magnetic. Since nearly all stainless was 300 series or superaustenitic, people assumed all stainless was non-magnetic. When we started bringing in some 416ss I got phone calls where I had to work through the limitations of using a magnet.
dgeesaman
Gold $$ Contributor
I've never used that grade but at work we've done a bit of everything: Monel 400, K500, Nickel 200, Inconel 600, duplex and superaustenitic stainless, hastelloy C276, G30, G35, ... One thing we know is these alloys are dimensionally unstable, prone to galling, work hardening, and tough to machine. In my mind, terrible base metal for an action or barrel.
group therapy
Gold $$ Contributor
you aren't supposed to talk like that on here!!!!
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