North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Tom Volkening <volkenin@mail.lib.msu.edu>]

I don't want to start a flame war here but some of the information in Mr.
Olson's message is wrong. I can't tell you about the magnetic properties of
various grades of stainless steel but I assume that the amount and kind of
elements added to the steel would effect it's magnetic properties.  However,
there is no such thing as stainless steel without iron in it or "non ferrous
stainless steel".  All steels are primarily iron.  Here are general
definitions for steel and stainless steel taken from one of the reference
books in the Engineering Library where I work. 

"Iron containing more than 0.15 percent by weight of carbon chemically
combined is normally termed steel."

"Stainless steel is a family of iron-chromium-based alloys, which are
essentially low-carbon steel alloys that contain a percentage of chromium
above 10.5 percent by weight.

Cardarelli, Francois. Materials Handbook: a Concise Desktop Reference, New
York:Springer-Verlag, 2000.

Tom Volkening
Engineering Library
1515 Engineering Building
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1226
Phone:  517-432-1498
Fax:      517-353-9041
Email:    volkenin@mail.lib.msu.edu
              volkenin@egr.msu.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: DocKW@aol.com [mailto:DocKW@aol.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 15, 2000 8:22 AM
To: nafex@egroups.com
Subject: Re: [nafex] Re: Alternate Tools (or) On the cheap.


Sorry guys, You have the magnetic properties of the various steels reversed.
A super shiney surgical stainless will NOT stick to a magnet. A "lesser 
quality" 
stainless will exhibit some magnetic properties; a high carbon stainless
will 
likely stick even more since you can't get carbon into a totally non ferrous

stainless steel.
This all relates to their intended uses.  A blade likely should contain some

iron so it will harden and hold an edge...but will stain more.  I use 
stainless scalpels which are sharp at the get-go ,but the really good ones 
are mostly carbon steel and are not stainless.
If you have pots that don't stick to a magnet, they are the quality you seek

in a pot for processing fruits....they are the " high quality" 
stainless....with no iron.
I find that I can still taste the metal in the final product if left any 
amount of time
(such as overnight to cool)...so remove the processed fruit to a glass 
container as soon as possible.
Karl Olson




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