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compass out of a floating needle

W

wade

Joined
Sep 22, 2005
Messages
493
I have seen these in survival books but never made on untill today. It worked:eek: Very accurate too. I cut a cross section of a 1in limb then carved it down to about 1/2 in thick. Then carved a shallow groove for the needle. I stroked the needle on a magnet several times then put in on the disk I had made. Put that in a bowl of water and sure enough it pointed North. I checked it with my Suunto and Silva compasses. Just thought it was a fun and cool way to kill time this morning.
Wade
 
This has made me wonder what is the best way to magnatize a needle in the wilderness. If you dont have a magnet and no silk, how would you do it?
Wade
 
I doubt you could, unless you can find and identify a piece of magnetite. But anyone smart enough to take a needle with them in the first place would probably also know to magnetize it first... And you'll also need a way to tell which end of the needle is the North end.

Kidding aside, I've read that the needle was to be floated on the water's surface, or a leaf. If you did it on a piece of wood (something relatively heavy), how long did it take to line itself up?
 
I just make sure that I have two compasses with me at all times in the woods. I check them periodicaly to make sure that they work. helps make any survival situation a little easier for me at least. In my opinion, magnitizing a needle would be a little bit of a pain. Knowing several natural ways of telling directions is also very important, ie stars, sun, and other things.
 
wade said:
This has made me wonder what is the best way to magnatize a needle in the wilderness. If you dont have a magnet and no silk, how would you do it?
Wade
Click to expand...


I've read that you could also rub it on wool. Don't know if it works though. I've never tried it. One thing I have wonder is if you magnetize a needel or piece of steel with electricity (ie. with wire and batter from a radio or something) will you get the same results? Anyone ever done this?
 
I recall doing a school experiment making an electromagnet from a two inch nail by wrapping the nail with a coil of thin insulated wire and connecting the ends to a 6 volt lantern battery.

IIRC, it would pick up paperclips etc. but whether the nail retained any magnetism after the electricity was disconnected, I am not sure.
School was a loooong time ago:D

Interesting question about creating an improvised compass, I will go hide in the workshop and try it out tomorrow.
 
As was said, school was a long time ago, but seems that you can align the electrons in a piece of rebar by striking it with a hammer or maybe it is the other way around. Wonder if you could magnitize a needle by tapping it with the spine of you knife? Guess this require some research.
Here you go. http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/phy00/phy00735.htm . This article talks about taking a rod of metal, aligning it north and south and tapping it on the southern end. Hmmm, guess that wouldn't do you any good if you don't know which way is north:( Of course I guess you could wait till night and align your needle to the polar star, then tap it on the southern end. :) Yeah, that'll work. Another experiment!
Oldsalt
 
Now that I think about it, the rubbing with silk probably works by building a static electric charge which aligns the electrons in the needle. If so, then any fabric that creates static electricity should work. Wool and fleece come to mind, don't think cotton or leather would work.
Oldsalt
 
I'm digging this one out from the bottom. This has probably been addressed since (I hope) but I wanted to address the difference between static electric fields and magnetic fields.

The idea of magnatizing a needle with a static charge is a physical impossiblility.

Static electric fields and magnetic fields are totally different from one another and do not interact. You can’t pick up charged pieces of paper with a magnet, and we can’t use an electrostatically charged object to attract to a magnetic field - which includes the earth’s magnetic field. Even if we could have created a static electric field on our pin with the piece of silk, this field will not interact with the earth’s magnetic field. The reason it seems to work is that most needles come from the manufacturer already magnetized.

Rick
 
Blue Sky said:
I doubt you could, unless you can find and identify a piece of magnetite. But anyone smart enough to take a needle with them in the first place would probably also know to magnetize it first... And you'll also need a way to tell which end of the needle is the North end.

Kidding aside, I've read that the needle was to be floated on the water's surface, or a leaf. If you did it on a piece of wood (something relatively heavy), how long did it take to line itself up?
Click to expand...


Or, just forget about the magnetite and just bring a compass...or two...or three... in the first place. I know that kills all the fun of wondering how :D
 
You know, I didn't think too much of this at first. But, taking another look at this reminds me that some folks pack a sewing kit, which of course would have needles in it. If their compass(es) got lost or broken, I guess it's not so hard to imagine trying to make one from a needle. Magnetizing the needles before you leave is still the best way, but there are magnets we might have with us. For example, those FRS radios have a speaker, therefore a speaker magnet. We also have batteries. With a little wire and a metal rod (nail? firesteel? another needle?) an electromagnet could be made. Something worth more thought I think...
 
The needle is probably already magnetic enough

Try it again with a brand new needle.

Just sitting in one spot for a long time (like on a store shelf or in a warehouse) will allow the earths magnetic field to influence the needle.

If you want to magnetize it in the field without a magnet, heat one end (one third or so) red hot, then let it cool liyng in one spot. As it cools, the earths magnetic field will align the structure enough to make it work.

Carl-
 
As I understand it... If you are going to use an electromagnet to magnetize a needle, you must get the needle into the CORE of the E-Mag... simply rubbing on the outside will give it a point charge and it will be useless for navigation.


Rick
 
The core of the electromagnet is magnetic of course. But passing another needle multiple times through that magnetic field should also magnetize that needle.
 
I think it only works if the needle passes though the coil, Blue Sky. Everything I can dig up on the web leads me to that conclusion. Otherwise it is just a point charge with no true N&S relating to the Earth's magnetic field.

This may call for an experiment...... moooah-ah-ah-ahhhhhh.
 
470 years ago (or was it 47??) I used to work in a garage. We used to magnetize screwdrivers, by making a coil of wire, inserting the screwdriver blade in the coil, connecting one end of the wire to a 12V battery, and brushing the other end of the wire on the other battery terminal, momentarily, leaving the screwdriver in the coil.

Needles can be magnetized in the same way.

Doc
 
DOC-CANADA said:
470 years ago (or was it 47??) I used to work in a garage. We used to magnetize screwdrivers, by making a coil of wire, inserting the screwdriver blade in the coil, connecting one end of the wire to a 12V battery, and brushing the other end of the wire on the other battery terminal, momentarily, leaving the screwdriver in the coil.

Needles can be magnetized in the same way.

Doc
Click to expand...

I've done this same thing, dropped a bolt where I couldn't reach, so I magnetized a long screwdriver, it work great.
 
Magnussen said:
I think it only works if the needle passes though the coil, Blue Sky. Everything I can dig up on the web leads me to that conclusion. Otherwise it is just a point charge with no true N&S relating to the Earth's magnetic field.

This may call for an experiment...... moooah-ah-ah-ahhhhhh.
Click to expand...

Experiment this. :thumbup:

I am not the author, the author however has MUCH to say on this subject AND he has pics!

http://www.wildwoodsurvival.com/survival/navigation/rbimprovisedcompass01.html
 
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