How do I know if "stainless steel" is really STAINLESS STEEL

[iamwhatiam52]

I just put a very powerful (1"x1" neodymium) magnet on the supposedly stainless steel Rio coral cutters and Marlin 24" scissors mentioned at the start of the post.

Can one of you please come over here and help me get this #@%* magnet off my tools?

 

[stugray]

iamwhatiam52,

LOL!

What are you doing with a "very powerful (1"x1" neodymium) magnet" not on a leash?!
That is finger crushing power there!

Wood wedges are in order, and your tools are not "Stainless"

Stu

 

[iamwhatiam52]

iamwhatiam52,

What are you doing with a "very powerful (1"x1" neodymium) magnet" not on a leash?!

I used to sell them on eBay before so many others jumped on the bandwagon and ruined it.

your tools are not "Stainless"

Stu

My Point exactly.

By the way Stu, love the first line in your signature. Reminds me of my daughter.

 

[username in use]

I just put a very powerful (1"x1" neodymium) magnet on the supposedly stainless steel Rio coral cutters and Marlin 24" scissors mentioned at the start of the post.

Can one of you please come over here and help me get this #@%* magnet off my tools?

:lol:

 

[iamwhatiam52]

Just to complete the story, I cleaned up my Rio coral clippers and under all the rust found the inscription Stainless Steel 316, the kind that several posters say should not easily rust and will not attract a magnet.

What does that say about truth in labeling on this Rio product? Looks like they need to check up on their manufacturer.

 

[Engloid]

With so many products being made overseas, counterfeiting of materials is becoming more common. It could be that it is 304, but they labeled it as 316. The Chinese don't know English, so they may have no idea what 316 means....they just stamp it on the product.

You could contact Rio about it and ask them about their product. Pose yourself as a buyer and tell them that you're considering buying a pump, and are concerned that some other brands will have corrosion issues. See what they tell you about their product.

 

[Luckless]

I got bored waiting for some data to finish processing, so I went back to dig out some textbooks on the subject.

Many of the properties of the metal have to do with the structure of it, not just the content. Stainless 316 Steel can often be magnetic if Cast, or excessively worked.

Also, as said, if kept wet and the protective oxide layer allowed to be removed and not refreshed, then it will rust in a similar fashion to normal steel. It usually needs to be fully submerged for this to happen, but I have seen it happen with some textured pieces that were merely kept damp.

I would write to the company about it, as they may be getting short changed by a manufacturer. The general moral of the story is to clean and dry any tools after working with them, and then store them in a dry place. What really kills stainless steel is getting a small pinhole or pit of rust, which can then eat away at the piece like a cancer.

 

[stugray]

"counterfeiting of materials is becoming more common"

Yeah, there was even a HUGE stir with NASA a year or so ago about a vendor selling inferior Titanium as a far more expensive version.

Turned out some landing gear on Navy carrier planes were made with the bad stuff & were breaking.

Once the investigation kicked off, it turned out that a lot of NASA spacecraft had the bad stuff in it.

We dodged a bullet on Kepler. The main spider that holds the focal plane was made from the bad stuff, but we had some of the material left in stores.
We tested it and it was definitely inferior, but met our requirements so we were allowed to launch.

The Mars Science Lab rover at JPL might have to rebuild some of it's structure because of it.

The person who sold the bad stuff is now facing a very long stay in a federal prison.

Stu

 

[lordofthereef]

Buy surgical grade bone-cutters, hemostats, karmalts, etc. They cost about the same as "coral cutters" from a retailer, sometimes a little bit more, but are worth the extra few bucks IMO in that they don't turn to s*** after a few uses.