I was reading about the Colt 38 Super Custom and it said it's optional between a carbon steel frame or a stainless steel frame. What is the difference? There is also a choice between aluminium or stainless steel hammers and triggers can you also tell me the difference between them please?
Carbon steel is harder but does not resist corrision as well. It really depend on the grade. Like 440A is crap and 440C is much better. Aluminum would be the way to go. It is lighter and just as if not stronger. Some people will be die hards when it comes to either metal. I don;t know much about the guns. I know plenty about different grades of sttel when I collected swords and knives.
stronger Carbon Steel or Stainless Steel
If your talking about a folding pocket knife, I think that it's basically six one way and a half dozen the other. I actually do prefer stainless for my pocket knives. I don't want to oil a knife to the degree I feel carbon requires, only to then stick it my pocket to attract dirt to the knife and oil to my pants. I'm the exact opposite on sheath knives though. I like 1095 carbon steel, plain edge sheath knives. I'll thrash on them HARD, and I rarely have major edge problems. Of course, I require them to be coated with some kind of powder coat or the like, because they can rust, but I do try and keep them clean and dry when in the sheath, so they won't pit the uncoated edge. My reasons for this sheath knife preference is multi-fold. First, these knives are simply affordable. I don't spend $80 dollars on a outdoors sheath knife. I use the tool too hard to want to spend more. I don't like the more traditional stainless steels such as AUS-8, 420HC, and 440C (not to mention the HORRENDOUS 440A) because I feel that the all else being equal, a stainless blade will bend before a carbon blade will break. I also think that carbon holds an edge at least as well, if not better, than traditional stainless, and it's much easier to hone. I don't know much about these new laminates, other than the very hard, but not so tough. They seem to be POSSIBLY too brittle for my use. That, combined with the fact that they cost a FORTUNE, means that I just won't be considering them.
Carbon steel will corrode much more easily than stainless steel, and stainless can be made stronger than carbon steel. Stainless steel is also usually heavier than carbon steel, which helps to control recoil when the gun is fired (recoil is not eliminated, only reduced). Stainless steel can also be polished to a mirror finish, so it doesn't have to be chrome-plated for that shine. Probably the biggest plus to using stainless over carbon steel, though, is the fact that it is far less prone to crystalization than carbon steel. When steel crystalizes, it becomes brittle, and can break at the worst possible times. Bad thing about stainless: It generally costs more. Aluminum is much lighter than any steel, size-for-size, and can be just as strong, if not stronger, than steel; I've worked with aluminum alloys that require special-made tooling. The difference, besides the weight issue, is that aluminum (even most alloys) will become softer when it is heated to a specific point -- which is why it is not used for the barrels of firearms using explosive powders as the propellent source. Because of the cost of the alloys which can withstand the heat generated in the barrel of a firearm, it is just less expensive to use a steel barrel. And for a fella that is so pro-gun, the previous answerer sure seems ignorant of 'em.
