magnetized saw files?

[Mark Baldwin III]

I've noticed that my saw files have become magnetized. Also noticed that the filings tend to stick to the tooth line of the saw as well. Has anyone else had this problem, and how did you correct it. It's pretty annoying.
By the way, my files and saws are not stored near magnets.

[Bill Houghton]

You can get magnetizer/demagnetizers - big hardware stores, probably Horrible Fright, places like that. Cheap, simple.

[mickey cassiba]

There is a tool available, though I've never tried it, called a magnetizer/demagnetizer. If you stroke your tool through one port, it'll set up a mag field, the other port supposedly does the opposite. Friction will quite often magnetize tools(especially carbon steel).

[mickey cassiba]

Bill you beat me to it

[Mark Baldwin III]

That makes sense. It's just one of those annoying things. I guess I just found it odd that I was only noticing this on my saws. In fact, it drove me to the point of not finishing the work on my rip saw. I'll have to see if I can get one of those do-hickies this weekend.

[Jerome Hanby]

Well, you can lightly magnetize a piece of soft iron by aligning it with magnetic north and striking it with a hammer. I guess anything that introduces vibration in a ferrous metal could cause the same result. You could spin yourself 180 degrees from how you usually setup when you use the tool and that should start to reverse the dipole orientation, thus demagnetizing it (and eventually magnetizing it again with the opposite polarity)...

[george wilson]

Seems like so many tools in my shop get magnetic. Especially milling cutters. I have an old jeweler's demag. unit.

[Andrew Pitonyak]

Friction will quite often magnetize tools(especially carbon steel).

Wow, I learn a bunch of really cool stuff on this forum! I wonder why that is. I understand that whole rub a balloon thing (so that it has a charge). Somehow this aligns/polarizes the metal. Very cool!

[Jerome Hanby]

If the piece is aligned with the earth magnetic poles and something gets the atoms excited enough so they start moving around vigrously then the force exerted by Earth's magnetic field will tend to align the atoms. If this happens frequently but the orientation of the piece is different every time, then the effects tend to cancel out. But if you are always aligned the same, then eventually you magnetize the material enough to notice.



Wow, I learn a bunch of really cool stuff on this forum! I wonder why that is. I understand that whole rub a balloon thing (so that it has a charge). Somehow this aligns/polarizes the metal. Very cool!

[Andrew Pitonyak]

But if you are always aligned the same, then eventually you magnetize the material enough to notice.
As you would while sharpening saws at the same place (as in I always setup the saw vice here at my bench) at the same angle....

[Jim Koepke]

I keep a cheap paint brush at the bench to knock the filings off the saw plate.

The file is usually just rapped on a block of wood to knock off the filings.

I do use a magnet wrapped in paper to remove filings from the bench. Then it is easy to just remove the paper to drop the filings into the trash.

jtk

[Bill Houghton]

Well, you can lightly magnetize a piece of soft iron by aligning it with magnetic north and striking it with a hammer. I guess anything that introduces vibration in a ferrous metal could cause the same result. You could spin yourself 180 degrees from how you usually setup when you use the tool and that should start to reverse the dipole orientation, thus demagnetizing it (and eventually magnetizing it again with the opposite polarity)...

I'm picturing Marv W crouched on his sawfiling bench like Tarzan of the Apes, filing his saws to keep the files from getting magnetized.

[Mark Baldwin III]

My saw vise is orientated directly north/south. Hmmmm.

[Jeff Wittrock]

If you don't have a demagnetizer, sometimes you can do a fair job with another magnet.
Bring the tool close to a magnet, then continuously rotate the tool while slowly pulling the tool away from the magnet.

[Tom Stenzel]

If you don't have a demagnetizer, sometimes you can do a fair job with another magnet.
Bring the tool close to a magnet, then continuously rotate the tool while slowly pulling the tool away from the magnet.

A short time back my daughter found that she could get really cool colors on a CRT television by rubbing a magnet on the screen. You can imagine how it looked when she was done! The built in degaussing coil wasn't up to straightening out the mess.

Television degaussing coils just aren't found anymore. I ended up using a circular magnet from a speaker, tied to string and spun by a cordless drill. Bringing the spinning magnet close to the screen, moving it over the entire area and pulling it slowly away demagnetized the screen. The magnet didn't have to spin very fast, about 100-120 RPM or so. YMMV.

Hope this helps.

Tom Stenzel

[Mark Dorman]

If the piece is aligned with the earth magnetic poles and something gets the atoms excited enough so they start moving around vigrously then the force exerted by Earth's magnetic field will tend to align the atoms. If this happens frequently but the orientation of the piece is different every time, then the effects tend to cancel out. But if you are always aligned the same, then eventually you magnetize the material enough to notice.

So then; is this one of the pros for filling a saw from both sides rather than from the same side.

Mark