I recently finished an outdoor installation using 3/8" corten steel. I enjoyed using the material and it looks great. I had to use a dual shield flux cored filler wire, which created some difficulties with overhead and vertical welding, but I made do. The reason I ended up using it, however, was the fear of the mild steel literally rusting away. Take a drive anywhere through the farmlands of the midwest and you'll see old cars, tractors, and other machinery rusting away. Most of this equipment has most of its sheet metal still there(a lot of it fairly sturdy). The question I have is this: If structural strength is not critical, will corten steel last appreciably longer than mild steel? If 18 ga sheet metal has lasted 30-60 years out in the elements, is it fair to say that 3/8" plate steel will 6-10 times that long since it is that much thicker? Since I have to special order the corten and pay for shipping, I have to assume I'll run into some snags and buy extra up front just in case. With mild steel, if I run into a problem I'd just call my supplier and go pick up the steel that afternoon. I would love to be able to direct future customers to spend their money as efficiently as possible.

Hi Steel folk,

Not sure if this is the right group for this question, but:

I'm a massive amature working on a project that requires small pieces of corten steel. I live in NYC and am working with an welder who isn't familiar with this material. So far, he's only found a source for giant sheets of the stuff, which is impractical on many levels. Wondering if anyone has any ideas about where I could get my hands on smaller stuff, like, of a size I could put on the subway...by myself...