stainless/chrome metalergy?

[Pbassred]

SS is Steel with between 10-30% chome.
Nickel strings are actually steel with a nickel steel plating ( I think)

but some stainless steels contain around 5% nickel.
So does anyone know the ACTUAL composition of the steel in strings?

[Phalex]

It all depends on the manufacturer. I don't think that SS has to have any chromium content, just higher carbon content than mild steel. They do make nickel plated steel strings, but they also make strings with a pure nickel wrap. Alloy 52 is 48% iron and 52% nickel and I understand that it is the same material they use for filaments in automobile headlamps.

Strings may not be like snowflakes exactly, but they are all pretty different from brand to brand.

[Pbassred]

I don't think that SS has to have any chromium content, just higher carbon content than mild steel.

No. That's not right AT ALL. If you put more carbon into steel you get - high carbon steel - harder and more brittle. Put even more in and you get cast iron because the carbon comes out of solution during cooling and forms lumps.

"In metallurgy, stainless steel is defined as an iron-carbon alloy with a minimum of 11.5 wt% chromium content" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stainless_steel

Moreover, a lifetime in manufacture has taught me that manufacturers of similar products gravitate towards similar designs. In any case, how much wire can a string make use for each product? Is it worth a foundry makeing a specific alloy for each? (that's a question - not a statement.

Its not a simple answer. Hence my post.