Stainless Steel

[HotRodder]

Was out yesterday and put my stainless knife on the ground and passed the Whites 5000D over it and no signal ?? Whats up with that A penny was loud and clear and a nickle did not sound off either. I must be tuning this thing wrong. Got any hints ?

 

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[stefen]

Read your manual

Probably has a trouble shooting section and most likely a setting.

Good luck.

 

[JOE(USA)]

HotRodder,
Remember that "stainless steel" is an alloy. It has varying electromagnetic properties depending on what alloys are used. As for whether it's magnetic, the answer is that it depends. There are several families of stainless steels with different physical properties. A basic stainless steel has a 'ferritic' structure and is magnetic. This is caused from the addition of chromium and can be hardened through the addition of carbon (making them 'martensitic') and are often used in cutlery. However, the most common stainless steels are 'austenitic' - these have a higher chromium content and nickel is also added. It is the nickel which modifies the physical structure of the steel and makes it non-magnetic.
So the magnetic properties of stainless steel are very dependent on the elements added into the alloy, and specifically the addition of nickel can change the structure from magnetic to non-magnetic.
What this means to someone testing their detector on stainless steel is your wasting your time, you can't predict how your detector will respond. Joe

 

[Tin Nugget]

I would say you had the nickle discriminated out and steel usually is a weaker than nickle.

 

[littlehugger]

I have noticed that my detectors tend to be blind to stainless steel.
I always wondered how this effect played out with airport metal detectors, as there are a LOT of stainless steel guns out there.
I always just assumed it was partly because of the poor magnetic qualities of stainless steel, and the fact most detectors are tuned to reject iron and steel and other ferrous metals as junk, since detectors with scales always show ferrous stuff at the bottom of the junk category, and that airport metal detectors were tuned the other way.
Anybody know?