Self magnetizing knife blades?

solidorange · Jul 29, 2012

My Zing blade frequently magnetizes itself, even though it has never been anywhere near a magnet. Does this happen to anyone else with a Zing/any other model?

It isn't a huge deal, and doesn't really bother me, but i do find it strange. A quick spine whack will demagnetize it, but does nothing to prevent it from happening again. If i leave it alone for a week, it will be slightly magnetic when i take it out of the case again. If i carry/use it for a week, it gets very strong. So strong that it will pull other knife blades towards it if I lay them down on the same table.

Anyone want to venture a guess on how or why this happens?

DedRok · Jul 29, 2012

I am not having this problem, but recently got a Zing last week.

Seems to be heavily underrated knife.... I prefer it over the Skyline!

nwmetalbug · Jul 29, 2012

Just checked my orange zing its never been out of the box so took it out and checked , non magnetized maybe your magnetic personality is wearing off on it lol

2 shot · Jul 29, 2012

Most interesting! Did you buy it new?

I am with DedRok on the Zing over the Skyline. Got to handle one the other day, feels more heavy duty and I like the size.

Did Kershaw release one with a more exotic steel? (sorry for the off topic question)

thenextarcher · Jul 29, 2012

a knife can be magnetized when it is sharpened and some other ways... You should be able to remove magnetization (i think).

solidorange · Jul 29, 2012

2 shot said:
Most interesting! Did you buy it new?

I am with DedRok on the Zing over the Skyline. Got to handle one the other day, feels more heavy duty and I like the size.

Did Kershaw release one with a more exotic steel? (sorry for the off topic question)

I did get it new, and it has done this every since my first week carrying it.

I personally like my skyline better, but the zing makes a great backup edc as well. The real g10, larger blade, and pocket clip put the skyline ahead in my book. I really hate the zing clip, it's just not my style.

As far as I know, it has only been offered in 14c28n and alabama damascus so far.

2 shot · Jul 29, 2012

solidorange said:
I did get it new, and it has done this every since my first week carrying it.

I personally like my skyline better, but the zing makes a great backup edc as well. The real g10, larger blade, and pocket clip put the skyline ahead in my book. I really hate the zing clip, it's just not my style.

As far as I know, it has only been offered in 14c28n and alabama damascus so far.

Thanks for the info. I agree the clip sucked, it was a bitch to get out of the pocket.

The fact that you can knock the magnetization off with a spine whack and it comes back gives your Zing a voodo/magical quality to it.

solidorange · Jul 29, 2012

2 shot said:
Thanks for the info. I agree the clip sucked, it was a bitch to get out of the pocket.

The fact that you can knock the magnetization off with a spine whack and it comes back gives your Zing a voodo/magical quality to it.

Hard to get out of the pocket AND ugly. that's a bad combo. :thumbdn:

It really did feel like voodoo the first time i noticed it. I put it down with the blade open about 2 inches from my open skyline and the tip of the skyline blade started drifting towards it. Crazy thing to see when you're not expecting it.

oregonknifenerd · Jul 29, 2012

You can demagnetize something with a hard whack but I've never heard of anything self magnetizing. Do you carry it in
your left pocket? Have speakers in your car door near your pockets?

phrenik · Jul 29, 2012

I must say, that is pretty neat haha. I have never had this happen to me on any knife for that matter o.o I actually would like it to happen if we ever figure out the cause

solidorange · Jul 29, 2012

oregonknifenerd said:
You can demagnetize something with a hard whack but I've never heard of anything self magnetizing. Do you carry it in
your left pocket? Have speakers in your car door near your pockets?

i carry in right front or right back. the most confusing part is that it doesn't happen to any of my other knives, and i carry/store them all in the same fashion.

paranoidsentry · Jul 29, 2012

I had a Kershaw vapor that after a few years did the same thing.

2 shot · Jul 30, 2012

oregonknifenerd said:
You can demagnetize something with a hard whack but I've never heard of anything self magnetizing.

Never heard of such a thing either but...his experience says you can, I have no reason not to believe him. That is why I find it most interesting as well having a cool factor.

suppertramp · Jul 30, 2012

My 0561 is magnetized

oregonknifenerd · Jul 30, 2012

Maybe it came magnetized, whacking it partially demagnetizes it but the remaining field pulls the rest of the particles in to alignment restrengthening the field? If you ever figure out what is going on I hope you'll let us know. This is incredibly interesting.

Dan57 · Jul 30, 2012

You should probably find some way to demagnetize the knife other than spine-whacking. It's hell on a lock.

solidorange · Jul 30, 2012

paranoidsentry said:
I had a Kershaw vapor that after a few years did the same thing.

suppertramp said:
My 0561 is magnetized

glad to know i'm not the only one!

oregonknifenerd said:
Maybe it came magnetized, whacking it partially demagnetizes it but the remaining field pulls the rest of the particles in to alignment restrengthening the field? If you ever figure out what is going on I hope you'll let us know. This is incredibly interesting.

this is kind of what i figured. i will update if i ever figure it out.

Dan57 said:
You should probably find some way to demagnetize the knife other than spine-whacking. It's hell on a lock.

when i say spine whack, i mean more of a spine tap. nothing that is going to damage the lock. :thumbup:

dogboye · Jul 30, 2012

Are the liners magnetized? If you're tapping the blade to demagnetize it, then putting it between the liners that have NOT been de-mag'd, wouldn't that re-magnetize the blade, over time?

solidorange · Jul 30, 2012

rockspyder said:
Are the liners magnetized? If you're tapping the blade to demagnetize it, then putting it between the liners that have NOT been de-mag'd, wouldn't that re-magnetize the blade, over time?

Hadn't thought of that. I will have to test them when I get home today. :thumbup:

CrimsonTideShooter · Jul 30, 2012

Ok, want to know what is happening?

When you spine whack the knife, you are disrupting the atoms inside which are magnetized (called "domains"). After you scramble those domains, the earth will reorder them if the knife blade faces NORTH/SOUTH. If the blade stays consistently facing east/west, then the domains will not be reordered so readily. Of course, it's impossible to never allow the blade to face north/south.

Another possibility is that you are only scrambling the domains on one end of the blade, and the unscrambled domains at the other end are reordering them.