Austenitic Steel and Magnetism

[opair]

The other day I noticed that my cutlery wasn't magnetic, which is a shame considering I have a magnetic bar installed in my kitchen. So my first assumption was that they are made of some poor material even though the packaging said the set was made of steel. Anyway, I looked up the model number and it turns out that my cutlery is made of austenitic steel. And I've gotten curious and did some googling and found out that "Austenitic steel is largely non-magnetic (not ferromagnetic)" (Quote source). Why is that? Why is austenitic steel not magnetic? I'm looking for an explanation but so far haven't found a sufficient one.

 

[Floris]

It would have been so awesome if you could have ended that post with: A nickel for your thoughts.

Because if I remember my high school classes correctly, it's nickel that makes most (stainless) steel's structure different and therefore non magnetic.

So the word you're googling for is ferritic structure vs nickel compound in stainless steel.