How about the magnet test? Is cheap stainless only a coating?
hard to say with what china is doing to things. a little off topic, but an example is china making "copper" wire that is copper plated aluminium wire and people are unknowingly having that in their homes. china is tweeking a lot of their metals and alloys. when i was working offshore on oil rigs, we got some shackles made in china and they failed before even getting close to their rated load. chinese shackles and slings were not allowed to be used by a lot of companies because of the high failure rate. not busting on china, but we are getting most of our metal products from them and they are not of the quality we had when the US steel mills were producing.
also to note on cookware...magnalite is a very respected name for heavy pots. magnalite was originally made in sydney, oh starting in the 1930s and was an aluminium alloy with magnesium and other elements added to make a very durable pot. china has been producing magnalite for a while now and people are noticing that they are pitting real bad and are turning black, especially when used with acidic items like tomatoes. a lot of people down here use magnalite and even pass the pots down the family line. a lot of the cajuns will not use the new magnalite because they think the new material used is toxic.
a little long winded post, BUT the wife and i do a lot of cooking and we have done a good bit of research on nonstick coating and different types of stainless, etc. i have some viking stainless pots and pans and the 5-layer stainless professional series is made in the US and is an excellent grade of stainless compared to the 3-layer version of viking made in china with lower amounts of nickel and chromium.
and yes, you are very right about the magnet test. long story made short, i was going to buy some stainless items a while back and a friend stuck a magnet to it. so yes, a lot of things being called stainless steel really arent and may be more of a coating, just like them copper coating aluminium wire....if in doubt, see if a magnet sticks