quick google tells me..........
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.
...hopefully one of the members with a slightly better understanding of metallurgy than i have will be along soon...
Well until one does, you'll have to make do with me.
Don't worry about chromium plating. Many, many kitchen utensils, grill racks, toast racks, cheap items of cutlery, kettles, teapots and what-nots are chrome plated. The chromium is in the metallic form, not a hexavalent compound -- which would indeed be dangerous. In fact most of the stainless steels in use in kitchens and for domestic cutlery contain about 18% chromium, which is why they are stainless. Chromium forms a very dense, very hard, and extremely thin oxide layer when exposed to oxygen in the air. That protects it from further oxidation, more or less indefinitely as long as you don't soak it in salty water or bleach, nor use a blowlamp on it. Strong chlorides tend to cause pitting corrosion, and if you heat it to very high temperatures (well beyond what would turn your dinner into charcoal) you will certainly damage it but it would probably be recoverable. Normal cooking over an open fire, a wood burner or a stove will be fine.
So whether the item in question is chromium plated or not, if it's stainless there's still a lot of chromium in it, and it's fine to cook with and eat from as long as it's single walled. If it isn't, then it might contain a layer of insulation or something else which wouldn't enjoy being waved over a flame so you'd need to be careful. The thickness of the steel shouldn't present a problem from the point of view of heat transfer, and if it's on the thick side it might even spread the heat spread evenly and prevent hot spots which could burn the food.
And it was a really good find! I'm jealous!
