Magnesium

BigMoney

BigMoney

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Anyone have or seen a knife with magnesium scales? Just curious.
 
Yep. I can think of one from years ago. It was a Smith and Wesson HRT model which had a magnesium body.
 
Unrelated, I watched a lathe that was filled with aluminum turnings catch on fire. As the person turned magnesium with no coolant and the molten chips fell on the bed of aluminum below, it ignited. 🤣
 
Same reason it's used for cameras apparently. "Magnesium is, in fact, the lightest structurally-used metal in the world with a greater strength-to-weight ratio than that of aluminum." It should be stable enough as a solid scale and work as an emergency fire starter if you shave bits of it off. I think it's more the danger of working with it that keeps it from knives.
 
shinyedges said:
Unrelated, I watched a lathe that was filled with aluminum turnings catch on fire. As the person turned magnesium with no coolant and the molten chips fell on the bed of aluminum below, it ignited. 🤣
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Why was he turning it to the point of molten… seems like a poor machinist to me. Mag takes quite a bit to light off. I’ve welded and machined a lot of mag over the years….

Zirc… different story
 
A knife handle does not need to be all that structural. And you can obtain more than sufficient structural integrity with a chunk of G10

If the magnesium is the knife handle, with what instrument are you going to shave off pieces of it to light a fire? Do you need to carry a second knife, or some kind of tool? Seems easier to carry a separate chunk of something else.
 
Triton said:
That sounds like an incredibly bad idea.
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Here it is. I think it’s discontinued now but you can still find them for sale on the secondary market.
 

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Applications of Magnesium in Aerospace

The benefits of high-performance aerospace magnesium alloys include reducing weight in fuselage structures, interior appliances and aero-engine frames. Highly machinable, versatile magnesium alloys are also used in manufacturing gearboxes, covers and components, helicopter transmissions...
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badmatt said:
Why was he turning it to the point of molten… seems like a poor machinist to me. Mag takes quite a bit to light off. I’ve welded and machined a lot of mag over the years….

Zirc… different story
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Considering this was in a cnc school program, yea, the operator wasn't a machinist. In a lathe It's actually not hard to make magnesium reach a temperature where it will ignite aluminum.
 
Magnesium is pretty reactive to sweat. Oakley made some glasses called the Switch that were painted Mg. The paint rubbed off and the metal started corroding. They had to replace a lot of frames and don't make anything in that material anymore.

For a very light metal scale I would always suggest Ti.
 
I have magnesium concrete floats. They are completely unreactive. I guess it’s not that much better than aluminum but how much is titanium really?
 
BigMoney said:
I have magnesium concrete floats. They are completely unreactive. I guess it’s not that much better than aluminum but how much is titanium really?
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Well for the floats the part you get to touch all day isn't Mg.

For Ti/Al/Mg the general rule is aluminum is affordable, Ti is expensive, and Mg is expensive too.

As a real SWAG if you have an aluminum part the Ti equal will be about 10x the price give or take and Mg will be about 20x.

So a load bearing $200 AL widget in Ti is $2k+ and Mg is $20K. For non load bearing like CP Ti beads or Mg they'll be a lot less but you probably don't want the knife handle swapping.

For anyone who thinks I'm being overly pessimistic take your sports car with Magnesium wheels on the beach and get some seawater on them. It will end badly.
 
Danke42 said:
take your sports car with Magnesium wheels on the beach and get some seawater on them. It will end badly.
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Not a car, but I put Marchesini "Mag" rims on my Ducati after a crash damaged the original wheels about 20 years ago - (and boy does the old flip-flop flip-flop much quicker with the reduced inertia). Of course they're not pure magnesium but a Mg/Al alloy - as any wheel will be(?). I have them inspected (x-rayed) for cracks every now and then, but they're still good. Don't ride through seawater, though.
 
TC said:
Not a car, but I put Marchesini "Mag" rims on my Ducati after a crash damaged the original wheels about 20 years ago - (and boy does the old flip-flop flip-flop much quicker with the reduced inertia). Of course they're not pure magnesium but a Mg/Al alloy - as any wheel will be(?). I have them inspected (x-rayed) for cracks every now and then, but they're still good. Don't ride through seawater, though.
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Robert Dunlop had a Marvic rim blow up at the IOM and that ended his career. Lucky to be alive from that.
 
That reminds me, One of my favorite videos is guy Martin vs Michael Dunlop. IoM is awesome.
 
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