What steel is this?

[lesoleilnoir]

Fellas,

As per several peoples suggestions here, I visited my local machine shop looking for scraps. A very nice guy there gave me 3 .125*2*12 pieces of steel. He though they were 304 but wasn't sure. As a side note, as I was rambling off a list of steels I was looking for ( ATS34, 440c, D2, A2, etc. ) he had no idea what I was talking about.

I was able to lightly scratch one of the pieces with some annealed 440C, I'm not sure if this tells me anything.

If they are indeed 304, what can I do with such thin stock?

Thanks as always,
Dan

 

[Kisu]

Not a heck of a lot. 304 is a low carbon stainless, most you could use it for is liners in a folder. If it was thicker you could use it for guards and bolsters. Not surprised too much by the lack of knowing the list of steels you rattled off to him, most of them are specialty steels that would normally go through a common machine shop, though I am surprised he didn't know D2. Hope this helps

 

[george tichbourne]

If it is 304 it will be non magnetic.