On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 11:24:52 -0500, "Steve Barker"
wrote:

Real stainless has no iron in it and does not rust.

Now *you* have lost all credibility.

All steel is made from iron.

There made be some faux stainless steel that isn't, but I haven't
heard of it.

I worked for six years at a steel company. In the office, but for
each project they took us on a tour. They make stainless steel like
they make other steel. They have a ladle of molten iron and they
throw in different additives. It mixes all by itself, but they use an
oxygen lance to make it mix faster and to burn off the excess carbon.

The thing that surprised me is that they don't just pour in the
additives. They throw in the whole 40 or 50 pound bags of various
chemicals, and the paper burns off as CO2 or just adds to the carbon
content of the steel. In the old days maybe they didn't make an
allowance for this small amount, but now everthing is planned in
advance, and samples are taken and analysed while the steel is still
in the ladle. In the old days they made 5 or 10 kinds** of steel at
this plant, but now they make 100's from thousands of recipes**.
Whatever the customer wants. Iron is by far the biggest ingredient of
all of them.

Sometimes they throw scrap iron or scrap steel into the ladle.

**Counting different amounts of the same additives as different kinds,
but there are also at least 10 different combinations of additives.

If it rusts, then it's
not pure stainless steel.

s

Actually.


"Joseph Meehan" wrote in message
.. .
Steve Barker wrote:
stainless steel does not rust. You just lost all credibility.

Actually Steve, there are many forms of stainless steel and yes it can
rust.