depends on the type of stainless steel. there are many types.
there's austenitic stainless, which is not magnetic. these are your 200 and 300 series stainless steels. heavy alloying with manganese (200 series) and nickel (300 series) is used to stabilize the face-centered-cubic austenite structure at room temperature. these steels strengthen by work hardening operations - rolling, drawing, etc.
the 400 series stainless steels are martensitic and ferritic. both structures are magnetic. the martensitic stainless are your 410's, 20's, and 40's. these are 12% Cr with about 0.15-1.2% carbon depending on desired strength and hardness level. strength is achieved by carbon supersaturation in martensite, and toughness is restored by stress relieving/tempering.
430 and 409 are your basic ferritic stainless - straight chromium and low carbon. strength comes from work hardening like the 200/300 series.
then there's the precipitation hardening stainless steels, which are martensitic or semi-austenitic. these will be weakly magnetic. these are your 17-4's, 15-5's, etc. they strengthen by precipitation of intermetallic compounds. carbon is actually detrimental to these steels, so carbon levels are intentionally kept < 0.1%. combinations of strength, toughness, and corrosion resistance are determined based on the heat treatment temperature, with 900F generally being the highest strength/lowest toughness and 1150F being the lowest strength but highest toughness.
there's also duplex stainless steels, but i'm not terribly familiar with them. being a duplex structure, they are probably weakly magnetic.
welcome to the wonderful world of steels. this is the world i love to play in
<-- materials engineer/metallurgist
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