Why is the tip of my Buck Bantam magnetized?

K

KHarper

Joined
Jan 4, 2019
Messages
112
I've had it for months and I only just noticed that it's mildly magnetized. Thought it was the whole blade, but it seems to be strongest around the tip. It's quite mild, and I didn't notice it until it felt kind of weird while using a metal diamond stone. I thought maybe it was to hold the knife closed, but the design of the lockback seems to do just fine for that...and there is also hardly any metal in the handle where the tip rests when closed. Kind of strange. Did it come this way from the factory or did I leave it sitting against my neodymium magnet overnight one time? (Not sure that's even possible).
 
This happens to me when I sharpen knives too. I guess its the stone creating friction and that gives the steel a slight charge.
 
Doesn't steel get magnetized when it get's rubbed by something magnetic in one consistent direction? I could be mistaken, I was never really into school. :D

I noticed similar thing with my Winkler bottle opener knife, except that the magnetization is at the tang of the knife. I assume it has something to do with grinding or finishing... Maybe, I don't know.
 
KHarper said:
...I only just noticed that it's mildly magnetized. Thought it was the whole blade, but it seems to be strongest around the tip....Did it come this way from the factory or did I leave it sitting against my neodymium magnet overnight one time? (Not sure that's even possible).
Click to expand...
Possible ecplanation....
 
If it's not a safe queen. Hitting the blade a couple of times with a small hammer on a hard non metallic surface will get rid of that.
 
Heating or hammering something can apparently make the earth's magnetic field weakly magnetize it. Being picked up by a magnet or stuck to a magnet for a while can weakly magnetize something. Transformers can magnetize things, especially big ones.
 
It can happen during the grinding process. They sell de-magnetizers (fairly cheap)if it bothers you.
I had 1 knife I know was magnetized -possibly more I didn't.
 
Its a feature, it helps when you use it as a screwdriver...

I let myself out now. But I. All honesty a cheap magnetizer/demagnetizer will do the trick. I used to demagnetizer screwdrivers I used on my computer.
 
GIRLYmann said:
Possible ecplanation....
Click to expand...
If I had taken a few minutes to experiment before posting I would have found this out for myself. I tried it after watching this and found out that a knife blade will be magnetized after just a few moments of being in contact with a magnet. I had no idea. Some steels seem to take it more powerfully (Buck's 420HC being an example), but I'm not sure of this. Some don't hardly seem to take it at all, but that might just be because of thin blades (Opinel). In every case except one, it magnetized the tip, for whatever reason science cares to come up with, except one: the Spiderco Tenacious. For some reason the Spiderco magnetized the spine of the blade, just where the material of the spine thins down to form the upper part of the finger-hole,on the side towards the tip. It is interesting that this is basically the same shape as the tip of a knife: thicker material tapering to thinner, so it must be something to do with construction and metal thickness, maybe microscopic structure? So now I got a bunch of magnetized blades though, so I'll either need to spring for the de-Gausser or try the hammer technique. Or just live with it; not to many metal filings around here, and these are all folders anyway.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top