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F-21 t1_iunj066 wrote

Reply to comment by Alt_dimension_visitr in Scissors for life - electrician scissors for the win by ransuru

Not sure what you're talking about, but carbon steel is overall the name that only signifies steel which is not stainless steel. Carbon steel can have many alloying elements such as chrome, nickel and others (copper, manganese, molbydenium, vanadium...) and depending on which standard definition you look at, stainless steels are also carbon steels. But in general when people talk about carbon and stainless steel, the term carbon is used to tell you that the steel in question rusts.

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barchueetadonai t1_iuq48oq wrote

Uh pretty sure “carbon steel” typically refers to steels with a carbon content higher than low-carbon steel, but less than cast iron

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F-21 t1_iuqa7va wrote

As per wikipedia:

> The term carbon steel may also be used in reference to steel which is not stainless steel;

And if you want to talk about carbon content, standard separates it further:

>Carbon steel is broken down into four classes based on carbon content:

>low-carbon steel

> medium-carbon steel

> high-carbon steel

> ultra-high-carbon steel

So while you might mean steels other than low carbon steel when you say it and it's how you understand it, that is too broad of a name to define specific steel in the American standards for steel (SAE, AISI). Carbon steel is any steel with between 0.05% of carbon up to 2.1% of carbon content, so that name includes everything from low carbon steel to ultra high carbon steel..

Edit: and some stainless steel types can be right on that 0.05% limit, but most commonly they're under it. That is why carbon steel is used to differentiate steel which rusts from stainless steel.

I see lots of people downvoted my previous comment, so clearly there's a lot of confusion regarding this and people throw the name carbon steel on whatever suits them in their context.

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