But with chromium present something different happens. Like some hugely polite guest, it reacts with the oxygen before the host iron atoms can do so, creating chromium oxide. Chromium oxide is a transparent, hard mineral that sticks extremely well to steel. In other words, it doesn’t flake off and you don’t know it is there. Instead it creates an invisible, chemically protective layer over the whole surface of the steel. What’s more, we now know that the protective layer is self-healing; when you scratch stainless steel, even though you break the protective barrier, it re-forms.
