How do I know if a belt buckle is 316 Stainless Steel?
A. The easiest way is a magnetic test. Get yourself a magnet. If the magnet sticks, its not 316/317 Stainless. If its slightly magnetic, its probably 304 Stainless Steel. The more magnetism you encounter, the lesser the grade of Stainless Steel. Always test the front of the belt buckle because when you weld Stainless Steel the welded area becomes slightly magnetic. Sound confusing? This has to do with the “Delta Ferrite” and can get a little complicated, but I will explain it as it was explained to me. In welding, the welding community found out a long time ago that if the filler metal is formulated to get completely austenitic structure (high Ni content), the welds are prone to “Hot Cracking”. That means you will get micro cracks in the weld, right after completion of the weld. So, to avoid this problem, the filler metals are formulated (higher Cr and somewhat lower Ni) to give a weld metal containing approximately 5% of “Delta Ferrite”. This clearly eliminates the possibility of “Hot
