Magnets

Troy H

Troy H

I'm always like this.
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Jan 28, 2005
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I've seen several WIP threads that show people holding their knives flat against the platen with their hands. As often as not, they follow up to say that they now use magnets to hold the knives while they do this.

For those who no longer use their fingers, what is a good source of suitable magnets? Any recommendations?

Thanks in advance.
 
Harbor freight has three different ones 100# 150# and 200#. I use a 150 and it works pretty good for me. Like jkf96a says, theyre not fancy but they work. And theyre not very exspensive.
 
Just be sure to demagntize the blades when done....its odd to toss a few blades on the bench and watch all the tips start turning towards each other.
 
That's cool. I had no idea they even made them but then again never really gave it to much thought. Thanks for the info. John
 
I used the magnets out of an old magnetic kitchen knife rack - yard sale cheap and works great.

Dick
 
It’s funny this came up today is spent most of the day working on a vacuum hold down for my work bench. I used to do a lot of wood working and for holding material down I used a vacuum block to hold it while I was working on it if you search the Internet you can find several examples. The one I’m making has three holes each on a separate valve so that I can work on different sized material. Once I get it done I’ll post some pictures.
 
hawkins knife supply has a magnet with a handle. i saw Jim Batson use one in a demonstration and purchased one. It is about 12 bucks and well worth it for many knife making procedures.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, all. Great tip about demagnetization, John. I wouldn't have thought about that until blades started sticking to each other.

:D
 
old thread i know but LEE VALLEY TOOLS carries 1" round rare earth magnets that could hold a mac truck.
 
Yeh Nathan it will and usually don't use the magnet after H/T
Stan
 
you can get magnets from an old vcr. i'm not sure what the part does but it has a wafer magnet set inside a metal dish. it usually has a brass pulley and is belt driven by a motor not far from it. a piece of steel will tell if its the right one or not before taking it apart.

most are over 2" in diameter so you'll have to make an offset for the handle to put the pressure low on the blade instead of close to the spine. i used to get some around 1 1/2" diameter from old floppy drives but most of the newer ones were a thin magnetic band. some small speakers have strong magnets that will work too.
 
Ah, finally an area I can give expertise in. The best magnets you can find come out of computer hard drives. Usually about 3/4" x 1 1/2" and about 50lbs pull. Given their small size, I find these extremely useful and much more powerful than my HF welding/retrieval magnets. These larger neodymium magnets are used to drive the head arms. They are about 1/8" thick and very strong. Don't let two of them pinch your skin, it will hurt!

If you need some, a pack of 10 on ebay is $5.39. The guy ships them still on the plate. They are easy to remove. Put a corner of the plate in your vice and bend it. The magnets will pop right off. I have a couple glued to the sides of my drill, so the drill will stick to the side of my tool cabinet.
 
I've done a bit of business with K&J Magnetics...pretty cool store. Check out the mounting magnets for this application, but I was surprised how many tasks in the shop could benefit form some smaller magnets here and there.
 
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