Liner-locks and magnets...

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Jun 18, 2000
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I was just thinking about the liner-lock ball-detent and the compression-lock when it hit me...
Has anyone tried a small powerful magnet as a means of blade-retention?
It would seem easy enough to place one on the inside of the scales to hold the blade closed.


What do you folks think?

Allen.
 
An interesting idea. The only real downside I can think of right now is that a magnet might attract troublesome grit and debris in the pocket and possibly cause havoc with credit cards if they are in the same proximity (the magnetic strips).
 
I think that sounds like a fantastic idea. Maybe a knife maker will pick up on it. I wonder if magnetism could also be used to move a locking device into position.
 
That's a really interesting idea... here's a few thoughts of mine:

I could see potential problems with pacemaker wearers...

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that a sharp jolt to a magnet could cause it to lose its alignment and hence power?

Is there a reason that Mission knives uses a non-magnetic sharpener?

-jon
 
I think magnets in a folding knife violates the KISS rule. I'm not hot on carrying a magnet on my person either. Could wreak havoc with important cards in your wallet (credit, DL, etc) or could possibly interfere with (or harm) cell phones or other electronics. You couldn't set your knife down near your computer/tv/sound system/etc at the end of the day either. You'd have to have a spot for it.

Plus, if you've ever sharpened a knife that's magnetized, it's really annoying! All the steel dust that you churn up as your sharpen sticks to the edge.
 
We talked about a magnetic auto, must have been a year or so ago. It got kicked around a little bit , but eventually everyone seemed to agree that it wasn't worth the trouble. Main reason was the grit that would be attracted by the knife, no matter how clean your shop is, theres still going to be steel dust and filings around. You'd just about go insane trying to machine and fit the peices. And then the user would still have to clean it every time it was sharpened etc.
And theres the problems you guys already mentioned with credit cards and stuff.
I think one maker ( maybe Larry Chew) did experiment with a magnet powered auto for awhile and found that it didn't have much snap to it.
 
I had a store clerk in a knife shop told me that he had trouble with school floppy disks. Then he found out that his knife was magnetic... it must have scrambled the data on the disk.
Magnets in knives that are meant to be pockets are not a good idea. There's just too many things that the magnet could harm.
 
it really isnt a bad idea, but the great problem is well a problem, you would probably want to use neodyum (sp?) magnets since they hold there alignment the longest.

I have designs for a magnetic auto that would have TONS of kick to it, and few makers would know about it unless they paid attention in physics class.
 
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