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Practical identification of stainless steel 304 vs 316

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Dear sir,

I am a scrap dealer and would please to know if there is any most practical and reliable method to identify grades of stainless steel among 304, 316 and others.

With regards

Wagon Teoh
Teoh and Goh Electrical Engineering - Singapore

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Common trick used by myself and a few other blacksmiths for recgonizing hi, mid, and low carbon steels. Take it to a bench or angle grinder, hi carbon will produce lots of sparks, mid will do less, and low will produce very little.

Take a steel you know the carbon content of and use that as a gauge.

Good luck

Marc Banks
- Elizabeth City, North Carolina

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I remebered something that may help you a bit more in identifing steel compositions. www.iforgeiron.com/Blueprints/BP0002Junk_Yard_Steel/BP002_Junk_Yard_Steel.htm. This will give you a basic idea as to what steel you are working with, I have found similar tables published in a few other blacksmithing refrences as well.

Marc Banks
- Elizabeth City, NC ,USA

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