What's The Story On Inox?

Happened across this piece today that explains Inox is nothing different than stainless steel. It goes on to explain several things about SS. While not a scientific journal article by a long shot, it was interesting nonetheless, at least to me, since I knew less about stainless steel before reading it.

https://pediaa.com/difference-between-inox-and-stainless-steel/

A pretty confusing article, at best. It's a complicated subject, as there are many variations of stainless steel. It's not impossible for stainless steel to corrode; it's just more resistant than carbon steels.

We had an issue in a chemical plant where the bolts on a pump broke. The metallurgist was called in to figure out what happened. She couldn't figure out why stainless bolts were put on the pump, since they don't hold up well against vibration. The maintenance people told her the last time they fixed the pump, they put stainless bolts on it. She asked me why on earth they would decide to do that. Easy, I answered, they are shiny. People inherently believe that anything shiny must be better than the same thing that's not shiny. She uses that story as a joke to tell around other metallurgists.

Since you found out INOX = stainless, let me point out that sometimes you see stainless from Germany labeled "rustfrei" (rust-free).

Now to extend your knowledge a bit: There is no such thing as "surgical steel". It's a term used make cheap stainless sound better than it is so that they can take your money. Avoid any knife labeled "surgical steel".

440 stainless is very common and comes in 3 varieties: 440A, 440B, and 440C. C makes a decent (but not the very best) knife blade. B is good for forks, spoons, etc. A is the most resistant to salt water, so it's sometimes used in diving knives. If a knife blade is labeled as having "440" without the letter, it's likely 440A and not the best blade. Again, another way to rip off the customer.

A few things to know about stainless steel.
1. It is more difficult to work with than mild steel.
2. It is poor conductor of heat, but can withstand high temperatures.
3. A stainless steel knife that will not stick to a magnet is poor choice for a knife blade.
4. It does not do well with chlorine. Chlorine will corrode and destroy SS.

Martensitic is my favorite type of SS

I had only heard inox used in reference to berettas, i figured it was just a nicer way of saying stainless steel