"BigWallop" wrote in message
. uk...

wrote in message ...
Is there an easy way to detect stainless steel (apart from the obvious
"leave it outside and see if it rusts")? I'm particularly interested
in trying to work out whether some machine screws I have are stainless
steel or not.

Chris Green

Zinc and brass taste bitter but stainless steel tastes sweet. So lick
them
and find out.


try the spak test on a grinding wheel. Different metals give different
sparks (needs research as it is a long time since my apprenticeship)