3 ms·

Isn't stainless steel a uniform alloy of chrome, nickel and iron?

• jeffbee 5y ago
  It would be if you made it in space, but in the presence of oxygen, or when the factory dips it in acid which is what they do, the surface is depleted of iron and enriched of chromium to a depth of a few molecules. Below that is a thicker nickel-rich region. Nobody really knows how this migrating is happening at a low level, by the way. Mystery of material science.