what is the difference between stainless steel 304 (AISI 304) and stainless steel 310 (AISI 310) COR-TEN A
Weathering steel will rust, but the rust will be adherant and not flake off and be replaced by new rust. Therefore once it rusts it will pretty much stop rusting any more. One (severe) down side is that anything around it will be streaked with rust stains and it will look awful. Some bozo with the Texas Department of Transportation designed a number of freeway interchange overpasses here in Houston using Cor-Ten steel and all of the concrete supports are streaked with red rust stains and it looks like hell. Cameron built an office building here in Houston with a Cor-Ten facade and it is streaked with rust too. They should have gone ahead and spent the money and painted them, but they didn't.
