Why is cutlery made of stainless steel

Surgical tools and medical equipment. Surgical implants. Architecture pictured above: Chrysler Building Bridges. Monuments and sculptures. Automotive and aerospace applications. Auto bodies. Rail cars. Steel is iron mixed with carbon and perhaps other metals.

It is harder and stronger than iron. Iron with more than 1. Primarily, iron is an element while steel is an alloy comprising of iron and carbon. However, in this alloy iron is present in a greater quantity. You can add various other metals to steel so as to produce alloys that have different properties. For example, if chromium is added to steel , stainless steel is the product. Stainless steel has a low carbon content which cannot be hardened, and regular steel is slightly stronger than grade 2 steel , and at the same time it is significantly weaker if compared in the terms of hardness.

Both steels can have magnetic properties, but stainless steel is usually nonmagnetic. Stainless steel remains stainless , or does not rust , because of the interaction between its alloying elements and the environment.

First, stainless steel is the best silverware material due to its durability. Nickel is valued for its resistance to corrosion and rust. Stainless steel can contain other elements such as nickel and manganese, but chromium is the key element which makes it rust resistant. As long as there is sufficient chromium present, the chromium oxide layer will continue to protect the stainless steel and prevent it from rusting. Sterling silver is the traditional material from which good quality cutlery is made.

Historically, silver had the advantage over other metals of being less chemically reactive. Chemical reactions between certain foods and the cutlery metal can lead to unpleasant tastes. A basic stainless steel has a 'ferritic' structure and is magnetic. However, the most common stainless steels are 'austenitic' - these have a higher chromium content and nickel is also added. The handles, on the other hand, are usually made of other materials, such as: glass, wood, methacrylate or plastic.

Stainless steel remains stainless , or does not rust , because of the interaction between its alloying elements and the environment. Stainless steel contains iron, chromium, manganese, silicon, carbon and, in many cases, significant amounts of nickel and molybdenum. Asked by: Srivatsa Manrique De Lara home and garden home appliances Why is cutlery made of stainless steel and not iron? Last Updated: 24th August, Stainless steel , as its name suggests, is more resistant to corrosion than plain carbon or low alloy steels.

The high chromium steel , however, would not dissolve and also stayed shiny when left around in the laboratory. Brearley immediately realised the potential his steel had for making cutlery that would not rust.

Fredesvinda Hadjiev Professional. What things are made of stainless steel? Common Stainless Steel Products and Applications. Culinary uses. Kitchen sinks. Surgical tools and medical equipment. Surgical implants. Architecture pictured above: Chrysler Building Bridges. Monuments and sculptures. Automotive and aerospace applications.

Auto bodies. Rail cars. Chunhua Saumenicht Professional. Why should you use stainless steel to make cutlery? Poveda Marggraf Professional. Which is stronger iron or steel? Steel is iron mixed with carbon and perhaps other metals. It is harder and stronger than iron.

Iron with more than 1. Sandy Gumpel Explainer. What Steel is made of? The Composition of Steel. Bilaly Larrachart Explainer. Is stainless steel stronger than steel? Stainless steel has a low carbon content which cannot be hardened, and regular steel is slightly stronger than grade 2 steel , and at the same time it is significantly weaker if compared in the terms of hardness. Both steels can have magnetic properties, but stainless steel is usually nonmagnetic.

Rosalba Stenglein Explainer. Unassisted bare hands, however, remained the norm for the "lower orders" in England for another century or so. The spoon was one of man's earliest inventions, possibly as old as the custom of drinking hot liquids. In Northern Europe, the first spoons were carved from wood. Later specimens were fashioned out of horns of cattle, ivory tusks, bronze, and eventually silver and gold. The earliest mention of spoons made from precious metals is found in the Book of Exodus, when Moses is commanded to make dishes and spoons of pure gold for the Tabernacle.

Moses asked Bezalel the first spoon-maker known to us by name in history to work in gold, silver and brass. Since Bezalel had come with Moses out of Egypt, he must have learned his trade there.

Many Egyptian spoons were cast in the form of handled dishes with a cover and a spout, an elaborate but not very practical design. Greek and Roman spoons, on the other hand, looked much more like the spoons we are used to seeing in modern times.

Pan, the patron of shepherds and huntsmen, was honored with spoons in the shape of a goat's foot. The Roman fiddle-patterned spoon, originating in the first or second century A. The first English spoons, made of horn or wood, were probably imitations of those brought in by Roman troops in Britain.

The Angles and Saxons introduced a spoon with small, pear-shaped bowl. By the fourteenth century, castings of bronze, brass, pewter and sheet tin were fairly common. The knife, used by hunters and soldiers for cutting and spearing the meat, was first made of flint, then of metal. Its main characteristic was a sharp edge.

Traces of the primitive knife, such as the incurved shape at the top, or the beveling of the metal to achieve an edge, are still present in some of our styles today. Handles at first were only long enough to allow a firm grip for carving. In the s, the Duke de Richelieu, chief minister to France's Louis XIII, ordered the kitchen staff to file off the sharp points of all house knives and bring them to the royal table, thereby introducing the knife as an every-day eating utensil for the aristocracy.

Forks were introduced at the table around the time of the Crusades, at the beginning of the twelfth century, when Venice's Doge Domenice Silvie and his Dogess placed a fork beside each plate at one of their banquets.

The forks took about three centuries to gain acceptance, probably because the custom of placing food in one's mouths with both hands, five fingers, or—for the refined few—three fingers, was more expedient than using a new gadget. Most dinner guests first carried their own knives. After the introduction of forks, the custom of guests providing their own eating utensils continued, and attention was given to minimize the space occupied by the knife and fork when not in use, with the fork sometimes serving as a handle for the spoon.

The production of tableware on a wide scale in England after played a large role in improving the dinner-table etiquette. In time, strict laws demanding high standards greatly enhanced the quality of silverware.

Silversmiths were required to stamp their name, the place, and the date of their manufactured goods on their pieces. The word "sterling" came to mean "of unexcelled quality. American silversmiths widely copied these spoons. In fact, the colonial craftsmen's first silver goods were spoons. Table knives with steel blades started to appear around this time as well.

However, silver forks and sophisticated serving vessels were rare until the late eighteenth century. Before the seventeenth century, silver could be melted and poured into shaped molds to be cast into a variety of objects, but more often it was hand beaten with sledge hammers on an anvil, or coerced into flatsheets of the required thickness by a version of the old-fashioned laundry mangle with iron instead of wooden rollers.

The hammering of the sheet caused it to become brittle after a certain amount of time, and therefore unfit for further working. At that point, it was annealed, or placed under heat of about 1, degrees Fahrenheit degrees Celsius , then plunged into cold water, after which the hammering could be resumed.

Workers sit astride their grinding wheels in this photo from the Rockford III. Cutlery Co. F irst used in the mid-nineteenth century, the term "silverware," referring to Sterling silver or silverplated tableware, has become synonymous with cutlery. Still, cutlery has been made of iron for centuries. In Great Britain, the area of Sheffield has been widely known for producing high-quality cutlery since the thirteenth century. With the introduction of silverplating in the late eighteenth century, the area also became identified with silverplated goods, thus "Sheffield plate.

Not surprisingly, Americans who sought to compete with Sheffield cutlery in the nineteenth century overcame opposition by reducing the cost of their cutlery through the use of powered machinery and simplification of the production process.

By , the Russell Manufacturing Company of Turner's Fall, Massachusetts, had reduced the sequence to sixteen steps, each of which might be performed by different individuals.