In recent years there has been an increase in tools manufactured from so-called ‘Stainless Steel’ popping up on the market. These tools are being offered to consumers at very low $ value, which has caught our interest.

At STERITOOL INC we strive to bring quality tools to our customers at an affordable price. We are always looking for ways to lower our overhead, stream line our manufacturing processes, and then pass the savings on to our customers.

Unfortunately this has been an uphill battle. The grades of stainless that provide the best combination of strength, corrosion resistance, availability, and machine ability, come with a high cost.

Many of these new ‘Stainless Steel’ tools incorporate new manufacturing and secondary processes to lower the cost and attempt to make an inferior grade of Stainless Steel perform above its designed intentions.

An industry standard corrosion test we use is called Salt Spray Testing. A salt spray test conducted to ASTM B117 standards call for a 1000 hour exposure to salt spray in a controlled environment.

Below you will see test results of Stainless Steel hex keys made by other manufactures after 100 hours… enough said.

STERITOOL (Carpenter 465)

Manufacture A


Manufacture B


Sometimes there are no substitutes for using the correct alloy despite the cost.