Early on in the days of working with metal, most often metallurgists used simple, pure metals including silver and gold. Officially stainless steel is a metal that contains at least 11% chromium. This use of chromium makes it so that the metal no longer rusts. This was discovered somewhat by accident in the 1800′s but was noted that the metal simply did not rust. Many different techniques were developed over the years to perfect the process of making stainless steel and today many flatware companies make stainless steel flatware.

Most often your “everyday” flatware is made of stainless steel, but it’s even become common for more “fancy” flatware used for special occasions to be made of stainless steel. From a practical standpoint, stainless steel is a great material for flatware. Its’ durable, doesn’t rust and is generally safe for the dishwasher. For those that want a high quality set of flatware, but don’t want to spend the time polishing silver, stainless steel flatware is perfect. Some companies that make some very good quality stainless steel flatware including Dansk and Towle to name just a few. Today, a good set of flatware just doesn’t need to be sterling silver like in the past.