Does anyone know what this is used for? Or even likely what grade stainless it could be? I inherited a handful of these shorter pieces and a longer length, that I'm sure is going to be useful for something someday...
It depends what you mean by "higher grade". If you consider the 400 series stainlesses, some of them especially strong and often used for knives, to be higher grade than the 300 series, well, some 400s are magnetic, while 316 isn't (304 isn't either unless you cold work it).put a magnet on it lower grade ss is slightly magnetic. higher grade is not magnetic at all.