Trying to find magnetic sword holders

Bill Marsh · Jul 14, 2006

I got these a few years back and just "discovered" them while looking for something else. Will clean the rust off! Didn't see it until I had already taken the picture.

These are really neat. Powerful magnets. about 5/8" wide. Mount them to a wall vertically and then stick a sword to one. With this width, you can't see the mount. Looks like the sword is floating on the wall.

Am looking for some more. I tried the magnetic knife holders, but they are too wide. Some of my sword blades are about 1.25 inches wide.

The magnetic knife holders are also not as strong as these.

While there is always a danger of a sword falling, these magnets are so strong that it takes a lot to pull a sword off.

Anyone know where I can find some more f these?

Bill Marsh · Jul 14, 2006

Of course, the moment I ask the question, I find an answer and can not delete the post!

Well, maybe someone knows of a cheaper magnetic sword holder.... I would like a bunch of them.

http://www.by-the-sword.com/acatalog/Sword_Hangers.html

munk · Jul 14, 2006

I've got a handful of Polk speaker cones that you can have. The diaphram's are torn, (HEY! who turned up the music?) but the magnets are powerful.

Why would you want to magnetize a sword, though? Because surely that is what happens with use.

munk

David Schott · Jul 14, 2006

All you need is to go to ebay and get some small (less than 1") neodymium magnets. They will hold anything. I have two 1.5" spheres that hold over 100lbs of iron each. All youll need are a few small flat ones. Keep in mind, they WILL magnetize your blade and youll need to de-gauss the blades if that annoys you (Read: every iron particle will be pulled onto the blade if you drop it or it touches dirt)

Neodymium is the way to go....dont go overboard. The big ones will leave you having to pry them off your sword with a crowbar, then prying them off the crowbar. if you think Im kidding check the pull force on a 3" n45neodymium magnet. its over 800 pounds.

cliff355 · Jul 14, 2006

If you screw a few of these to a board, they will hold your swords, chainsaws or anything else with ferrous metal in them. Watch the fingers if you hold two of them too close together though.

http://www.rockler.com/search_results.cfm?filter=magnets&submit.x=17&submit.y=6

(go down to "rare earth magnets" and click. I picked up a bunch of these at a Rockler store and had a tough time prying them out of the car.)

MBWirenut · Jul 14, 2006

either that or find yourself some old computer hard drives. They have rare earth magnets in them and they are strong. that is what I use.

Kevin the grey · Jul 14, 2006

Interesting Bill . First off I thought you were looking for holders for swords that were magnetic . L:O:L

Almost industrial looking . I guess thats not a factor as they are not seen .
I know there are some electro-magnetic door locks that might do the trick .
That might get embarrassing in power outages or lots of fun at parties . L:O:L

Bill Marsh · Jul 14, 2006

munk said:
IWhy would you want to magnetize a sword, though? Because surely that is what happens with use.

munk

munk,

I have questions about that. I would not want to intentionally magnetize a blade, though that WOULD happen.

Not because I could drop it in the dirt and have filings attracted to it as another poster suggested. These would be for antique swords that would not go outdoors.

I also would not use them to hold up keris. I regard keris as the most spiritual of my blades. This just feels wrong to use magnets on them. Interestingly enough keris have a magnetic field. If you move a compass over one you can see this. Most peculiar. I always thought that the heat from the forging procss would wipe out any magnetic tendencies (I may be wrong here about heat and magnets, a bit foggy on this).

I guess that magnetizing the blades of other swords would not hurt them, would it? Something feels a little wrong abnout using magnets like this on old blades, but maybe I am being oversensitive?

Kevin the grey · Jul 14, 2006

I think it is the annealing of the metal that takes away its being attracted by magnets . When they are re-treated they reaquire the property .

It is interesting that Keris have magnetic fields . The attunement ritual between an owner and his blade is of interest as well .

David Schott · Jul 14, 2006

Magnetizing wont hurt them. Though the HT process should "wipe" them, magnets are often used in part of the finishing process to hold blades during grinding, etc...which could all put magnetic characteristics into blades.

Degaussing a magnetic blade is easy. There are cheap tools that do it that you can buy at home depot, or an even cheaper way is to chuck up a magnet in a drill and move the spinning magnet down the length of the blade.

kronckew · Jul 14, 2006

Bill Marsh said:
I always thought that the heat from the forging procss would wipe out any magnetic tendencies (I may be wrong here about heat and magnets, a bit foggy on this).

I guess that magnetizing the blades of other swords would not hurt them, would it? Something feels a little wrong abnout using magnets like this on old blades, but maybe I am being oversensitive?

one of the ways of measuring that a blade being heat treated has reached the right temperature is that it loses it's magnetic properties.

magnetizing swords does not sound respectfull to a fine blade whether or not it is a keris, not to mention what happens when you get too near a car, or find your entire collection slowly ooozing together in one large clump. it does make a nice tool for retrieving that paper clip that just fell behind the couch tho, even if you can't get it back into it's steel scabbard anymore.

cliff355 · Jul 14, 2006

TikTock said:
Magnetizing wont hurt them.

I keep a bunch of tools on a magnetic rack, and if they are being magnetized I haven't noticed. Nails and screws certainly aren't flying across the bench and sticking to them.

Bill Marsh · Jul 15, 2006

TikTock said:
All you need is to go to ebay and get some small (less than 1") neodymium magnets. They will hold anything. I have two 1.5" spheres that hold over 100lbs of iron each. All youll need are a few small flat ones.

Neodymium is the way to go....dont go overboard. The big ones will leave you having to pry them off your sword with a crowbar, then prying them off the crowbar. if you think Im kidding check the pull force on a 3" n45neodymium magnet. its over 800 pounds.

TT,

I am really glad that I asked about magnets. Neodymium IS the way to go. I am still trying to figure what is enough and when I will need a crowbar to get the sword off the wall.

You speak of 1.5" holding 100 pounds. THIS would be overkill. A heavy antique sword would not weign over ten pounds. More like 3 or 4 pounds. I have found some on eBay that are 15mm (a little over 1/2 inch in diameter. These have a countersunk hole in the middle, so a screw could be put through. Do you think these would be strong enough?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150011359597&fromMakeTrack=true

or

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=9513480846&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWA:IT&rd=1

Bill Marsh · Jul 16, 2006

OK, results of the research is that I need a couple of neodymium magnets for each sword. They will cause a weak magnetic field to develop in the sword, but beyond a weak anal retentive field of my own not to change antiques swords, I think this will be a very minor change.

BTW you user guys should note that a weak magnetic field could attract the metal filings you grind down when you sharpen a blade, but since you do not sharpen antiques swords, it should not matter to me.

Take a piece of wood, say, walnut and drill most of the way through with a Forstner bit. drop in a neodium magnet of about 5/8". add a washer to beef up the field and put glue over them. The wood will protect the sword blade from the magnets. Also the magnets are quite brittle and could chip or break. The wood will prevent all that.

attach the piece of wood to a wall and viola! Sword hanger!

Will post pictures when I make some.

arty · Jul 16, 2006

Garrett Wade sells 12" magnetic tool holders for a buck an inch. They also have larger ones that would hold a number of swords.
Lee Valley also sells some of these for slightly less money. They are not elegant, but should work.

ferguson · Jul 16, 2006

Just remember if Atlanta ever get's hit with a thermonuclear device, the Electro Magnetic Pulse could cause all of your swords to fall off the wall.

Oh, I guess it won't matter.

Maybe I need more coffee. Or less.

Steve

Yvsa · Jul 16, 2006

Bill Marsh said:
Take a piece of wood, say, walnut and drill most of the way through with a Forstner bit. drop in a neodium magnet of about 5/8". add a washer to beef up the field and put glue over them. The wood will protect the sword blade from the magnets. Also the magnets are quite brittle and could chip or break. The wood will prevent all that.

attach the piece of wood to a wall and viola! Sword hanger!

Will post pictures when I make some.

Will be anxiously awaiting the pix! :thumbup:

Bill if you don't want to use magnets what is wrong with the other sword holders the link you posted has?

Some of the sword holders are designed to hold the sword in its scabbard and those I think would work for any Keris you might want to display. That way the Keris would be stored and hung in its own scabbard so there wouldn't/shouldn't be any disrespect as far as I can see.:thumbup:

Kismet · Jul 16, 2006

You know, if those magnets are THAT strong...

a fella could put some of them on a couple of boards and then, carefully equalize the distance between the boards until the sword would be suspended exactly between them, hanging in air!

(well, you could.)

Bill Marsh · Jul 16, 2006

Yvsa said:
Will be anxiously awaiting the pix! :thumbup:

Bill if you don't want to use magnets what is wrong with the other sword holders the link you posted has?

I like the elegance of a naked blade hung without apparent mounts on a wall, with the point down. Some of the mounts they have are quite nice. But I want the mount to disappear.

Yvsa said:
Some of the sword holders are designed to hold the sword in its scabbard and those I think would work for any Keris you might want to display. That way the Keris would be stored and hung in its own scabbard so there wouldn't/shouldn't be any disrespect as far as I can see.:thumbup:

I might buy some of their other hangers and see how they look. Would want to be sure that the metal of the hanger would not scratch the fine wood on the keris scabbard. I wish they had some in plexiglass instead of pewter or brass. Maybe I'll make some for the keris. Normally my keris seem happy to sleep in their little cloth cases called "singyaps." Anne calls them "keris pajamas."

I would not use magnets to hold a keris. Well, a Javanese or Balinese keris anyway. I have a strong feeling they would not like it. It is also said that the keris spirit of the blade is yin and does not like bright (yang) light.

The idea of displaying a Javanese or Balinese keris without its scabbard seems very wrong to me. In the Javanese or Balinese tradition it would be like hanging naked pictures of your wife around the house and/or publishing them on the Internet. Just wrong.

The Javanese feel so strongly about this that where usually the ganga or separate piece of metal at the base of the blade is made of the same pamor as the blade itself, BUT on certain very special keris the pamor of the ganga is made purposely different.

The Ganga is the only part of the keris that shows when the blade is in the scabbard so a different pamor on the ganga would not let anyone know the true pamor of the blade.

However I consider the Moro kris differently. While it is also a talisman, it was built to be used as a sword for attack and defense. As such it could be hung as a naked blade on a wall.

Where you very rarely find a Javanese keris without a scabbard, the reverse is often true with the Moro kris. Usually the scabbard was dropped as the warrior went into battle. Sometimes the Moro scabbard was used as a parrying device, but the result is that there are many Moro kris available without a scabbard.

I have never bought a Javanes keris without a scabbard.

The first picture shows the singyap with a Javanese keris.

You can see the top of the blade in the scabbard with the gold. This is called the ganga. Sorry that I can't share more in a public forum.

Thought that the woodchucks might be interested.

Yvsa · Jul 16, 2006

Bill Marsh said:
I might buy some of their other hangers and see how they look. Would want to be sure that the metal of the hanger would not scratch the fine wood on the keris scabbard. I wish they had some in plexiglass instead of pewter or brass. Maybe I'll make some for the keris. Normally my keris seem happy to sleep in their little cloth cases called "singyaps." Anne calls them "keris pajamas."

I would not use magnets to hold a keris. Well, a Javanese or Balinese keris anyway. I have a strong feeling they would not like it. It is also said that the keris spirit of the blade is yin and does not like bright (yang) light.

The idea of displaying a Javanese or Balinese keris without its scabbard seems very wrong to me. In the Javanese or Balinese tradition it would be like hanging naked pictures of your wife around the house and/or publishing them on the Internet. Just wrong.

Bro since you and I have discussed the Keris I have treated mine with much more respect than I once did out of ignorance.
I have never known about the singyaps, does a fellow have to make his own or can they be bought?

I have a Moro Kris that hangs naked on the wall but only because it didn't come with a scabbard. I suspect it's because it was a "bring back" from the war.

And it's very rare that I have seen a bare keris without its scabbard, only once or twice in going to all the gun and knife shows I used to attend.

There is a scabbard of some sort no matter how bad a shape it's in at least 99% of the time.