Stainless Steel for Cutlery

Stainless Steel for Cutlery | Cutlery Stainless Steel Grades
Cold, sterile stainless steel has been a playful medium in the hands of designers since its official premiere around 1913, when British scientist Harry Brearley proved that the low-carbon iron and chromium alloy did not corrode like regular steel. This was in Sheffield, England, long known for its knives, and the new rust-free steel quickly became popular for cutlery.

Since 1921, the Italian company Alessi, just north of Milan, has also become synonymous with all kinds of stainless steel tableware. It has turned out more than 2,000 designs of stainless-steel platters, tea sets, trays, mirror frames and a plethora of home wares with a whimsical twist. Bird-shaped peelers and other animistic forms are their stock in trade but are not intended to be trendy.

Because they almost never discontinue anything in the line, Alessi designs can always be reordered, says Paolo Cravedi, Alessi's U.S. managing director.

Alessi's custom steel alloys, with a greater percentage of chromium and nickel in their composition for corrosion control, malleability and sheen, are molded, cut, stamped, folded and welded together. Sometimes, as in the case of the new Vassily tray by Giulio Iacchetti, they are cleverly combined with heat-resistant plastics polymer parts. Unusual objects include a new stainless Colombina tray by visionary architect Massimiliano Fuksas with a triangular amoeba shape.

Another new design, a fruit bowl called La Stanza dello Scirocco - Room of Hot Wind - by Milanese designer Mario Trimarchi, is Alessi's poetic homage to fierce seasonal Sicilian windstorms that force people to retire to windowless basements to play cards until the storms abate.

The sculptural asymmetrical bowl shape is composed of stainless steel playing cards welded together that seem to swirl in the wind. The bowl's complex structure is the result of cutting, folding, welding and hand buffing, demonstrating stainless steel's enduring appeal as an artful material.