Stainless vs Carbon?

[KirkSpeaks]

Hey guys,
I have a question about knife blade steels.
How do you tell if a steel is carbon or Stainless steel?
I know that stainless steel has a chromium content of 10.5%? or 12% and up.
And Carbon steels have copper levels not exceeding 0.40%
and the following elements does not exceed the percentages noted: manganese 1.65, silicon 0.60, copper 0.60. 2.1 Carbon.

So take this knife steel for example:
154CM knife steel:
Carbon 1.05%
Chromium 14.00%
Manganese 0.50%
Molybdenum 4.00%
Silicon 0.30%
So to me this looks like it qualifys as a stainless and a carbon steel.
Is there some sort of order of operations? Like in math? PEMDAS?

Just a little confused here.

Thanks - Kirk

 

[Ankerson]

14% Chromium or better.

 

[Shotgun]

The difference between carbon steel and stainless is the amount of chromium which is stated above. However it is a bit of a misnomer in that all steels are carbon steel. Stainless steel is carbon steel with 14% or more chromium.

 

[hardheart]

Stainless steel has enough free chromium for to create an oxide layer to reduce corrosion. You need about 10.5% in the austenite phase, IIRC. Steel is iron with carbon added, but carbon steel does not have other major alloying elements, since you then have alloy steels, like tool and stainless steels. The 10xx series and equivalents in other naming conventions are the only carbon steels.

 

[knarfeng]

Stainless steel has enough free chromium for to create an oxide layer to reduce corrosion. You need about 10.5% in the austenite phase, IIRC. Steel is iron with carbon added, but carbon steel does not have other major alloying elements, since you then have alloy steels, like tool and stainless steels. The 10xx series and equivalents in other naming conventions are the only carbon steels.

what he said.