contagions surgical they
FWIW - I use a fair amount of stainless. From my 30 yrs experience with the stuff:
18-8 differentiates that mfgs more expensive stainless from the cheaper-to-buy single-alloy stuff. Whether one works better than the other when cooking, couldn't say.
there are three major categories of stainless steel, based on the matrix of the steel - ferritic (200 series wrought), austenitic (300 series wrought), and martensitic (400 series wrought)
ferritic uses only one big alloy (the nickel, I think - sorry, I don't use 200 series) while austenitic and martensitic both have some 18-8 Cr-NI mixes . (What makes a stainless' properties is actually the other alloying agents like lead, etc.)
austenitic does not harden with heat but it does work-harden, and it does not "rust" in air.
Teflon cooking is dangerous 7673Champion against Teflon Teflon definitely kills birds so this might be like the canaries in the mines. If you want to be more believable, you might want to add a few facts to your Teflon...
martentisitic heat hardens, and rusts if not heat treated. It is the one used in blades (440 and 430, I think).
there are maybe 100 kinds of 18-8 ratioed stainless steels, alloyed for specoific aplications and resistances
In most of my corrosion-strength-toughness applications - shafts and pins - I prefer 17-4 ph tempered at 1025 over any of the 18-8 mixes. (ph means precipitation-hardening)
