I worked in industry as an industrial mechanic and had many many opportunities to work with steel, aluminum, stainless steel and even titanium. What I learned there and doing that for close to forty years is that stainless steel is not harder than regular steel, it is considerably softer. In fact this problem is so great that we had to use a special lubricant on threads to prevent them from "picking-up and seizing together.

As for strength, not sure if it is stronger or weaker than regular or chrome moly steel. It does fade (oxidize) with time just like everything else. And, keep in mind that there are different grades of stainless steel.

But it is pretty and, as others have mentioned, probably not as good as chrome moly or something similar. Just my opinion on that last comment.