Other options
We had a number of bent, misshapen stanchions, so we decided to replace them all. After recovering from the shock of prices at different manufacturers (Ronstan, SeaDog, etc., which you should check out on tthe wwweb) we went to the local scrap yard and bought about 24 feet of stainless steel tubing for about $25.00 . The alloy number is often printed on it, so you can know exactly what you're getting. (There's stainless and there's STAINLESS.) We did buy a set of SeaDog SS stanchion caps to finish them off nicely. An afternoon cuttting the lengths and drilling a hole or two, and we're ready for the next 20 years.