All About Pocket Knives

So I had two opened #23's sitting on my desk, i went to pick one up and it rotated near the other. When the blades got close to each other they literally snapped together. Apparently one or both of the blades are actually magnetized. Anyone else know anything about or have experience with this? Would magnetism effect or be a symptom of a tempering issue? I must point out again that the blade is not just magnetic.... it is actually magnetized.

any info would be greatly appreciated!


upon further investigation I found out it is specifically my #23 elk spay blade pioneer.... it will pick up nails and picture hangers.

Magnetism is complicated and simple at the same time. The simple part is something that's magnetized has it's electrons aligned. The explanation of how it got that way is often complicated and almost always involves electricity.

The most simple answer is one of your knife blades (check them both with a straight pin to see if only one or both attract it) or both probably passed close to a strong electromagnetic field.

Thank you for the info. Still very odd to me as only the one is magnetized and I carry all my knives in the same way and in the same places... guess it will just be a mystery as to how it became magnetized. It wasn't magnetized when I got it. It has laid near pins or little nails or other knives etc many times before and has never attracted them. I haven't carried it for a few weeks and now its picking up paper clips... odd.

Sharpening knives on a stone can magnetize them. Machine shops always have a demag machine in them because the parts get magnetized during the grinding process even if you don't use a magnetic chuck. I can't remember the scientific explanation for it though and I'm too lazy to go look it up and write it all out right now. It's been a long week.

when i was in rick menefees shop i noticed he demagnetized blades & parts every now & then as he worked.---HiPower

I think it might be an insidious plot by your knife to steal your paper clips. I'd keep an eye on it. But I might be wrong.

Thanks for all the help guys. I guess it must be from sharpening. I have only ever sharpened it with my stones before... wonder if the magnetism means anything about the way I am sharpening. And yeah Classic Case, maybe I'l wake up tomorrow and my knife will have like tripled in size from eating all my paperclips. That wouldn't be so bad.... not that the #23 needs to be any bigger though.