Thread: Holy cow, my Kinfolks is magnetized!

I was comparing blades this morning and they stuck together! After a good bit of experimentation I determined that it is the toe section of my Kinfolks that is magnetized. Only touched spines together so I don't know about down towards the edge. How did this happen? Is it common? What does this mean?

Yeah there are some out there that are magnets, I have 3-4 the strongest being my DD Wonderedge (not all WE's are)..... Some of the vintage razors were actually advertised that way, I have no clue as to what the advantage supposedly was .... perhaps something like a battery powered vibrating disposable now

Just a theory, maybe they were done that way thinking it would lift the whiskers the way static lifts the hair!

I wonder if that might be an occassional effect from grinding? Oddly enough it only seems to be magnetic towards the toe and not at the heel or tang.

I believe grinding would remove the magnetism. Giving a piece of metal more random energy (like heating it or hitting it), disaligns the atoms in the material, and therefore causes it to demagnetize.

The only way I know of that a metal can become magnetized is for it to be put into an alternating magnetic field that is being ramped up. I learned somethig about this in college, but I don't really remember. I do remember a professor saying that scientists wearing iron/steel wristwatches often found they became magnetic when they worked around accelerators (this was back in the days of the smaller cyclotrons).

You're right... it's all coming back to me now. You can magnetize a pin by drawing it across a strong magnet (then you put it threw a cork and float it in a cup of water and voila, compass )

I understand that a lot of restorers use a strong magnet to hold the blade in place during certain operations! Maybe this is why the blade is magnetic.

i have used a magnetic holder while restoring a blades and it left the blades magnetized enough to lift other razors (plain blades, no scales) and they are still that magnetized 8 months later.

i have a couple griffin "carbo-magnetic" razors that are nowhere near as strongly magnetized.

It can also be demagnetized with a magnet. We used a big electro-magnet to demagnetize turbine parts at work, but with some patience it should be possible to demagnetize or at least reduce the magnetism.
Just wrap a magnet in some fabric so it doesn't make scratches in the razor. Move it back and fourth over the problem area, try to flip the magnet or razor over etc. and test the amount of residual magnetic field by picking up a pin or something.
It is probably difficult to get it all out, but it should be possible to reduce it a great amount.

Just my $.02

haha, well, I didn't see it as a problem. It was just one of those revelations that surprised me since I had not seen it mentioned before. "heh, it's magnetic!" followed by "the other ones aren't!" followed by "it's only magnetic at the toe end?" I think I forgot about 10 years ago that you can magnetize steel simply by passing a magnet over it. ...I guess it could have been a problem, but I have gold caps on my molars