I am still enthralled whenever I see a high-power magnet, like when I was a little child burning bugs with a magnifying glass...
I wonder if a magnet has any place in a kit. I think yes. I have been mulling it over for years, yet the only situation I can come up with yet is of course the keys down the grated hole. But when is that going to happen. Probably never.
Then I saw a guy drop his keys into a deep grate-covered hole. He was able to pull the grate off and climb down into the slime and muck to retrieve them. It was about a seven foot deep pit! He was filthy when he got out. I instantly thought "That guy is sure persistent, but he would be clean as MacGuyver if he had used a magnet and string."
Now I am more conscience of when I have to hold my keychain more carefully (as my photon light is on it besides my keys), and it is actually quite often. It amazes me how often I am standing over non-solid ground. The last time was at night I was using my photon to look out into the water at frogs. By the way, the red photon light was not bright enough to see any of them. But, point being, I was standing on a tiny wooden bridge my keys could have easily bounced off and into the water if I had dropped them. Plorp!
Grade N45 magnets are the most powerful.
Look at the round ones with a hole in the center. Nifty!
I think I might get the 19 lb pull force and the 60 lb pull force. What do ya'all think?

Just be careful not to wipe off the info in magnetic strips on credit cards, electronic/magnetic keys, and such.


(back to lurking...)

Also keep the magnet away from a compass. With a magnet that strong you could actually change the polarity on the compass needle.

Those magnets are great. Get some of the smaller ones too. With 19 lbs pull force let alone 60 lbs you will have a hard time if your keys happen to fall through an iron grate. You will probably not be able to get the magnet through the grate.
I have a 12 lbs magnet (without hole)for EDC and its almost impossible to pull it from a steel surface if it happens to stick to it. The 60 lbs magnet may actually pull your pack to nearby steel objects or vice versa over an amazing distance. When I got mine I was really surprised how powerful they are.

I use a magnet to magnitize the sewing needles I put in my PSK. Before I store them I place them on a piece of paper floating in a bowl of water. I then use a red marker to indicate which end of the needle points north. I got the idea from reading how POW's in Germany would make escape compasses by placing thin pieces of metal on the magnets at the back of camp PA speakers.

I EDC a real compass and have a button compass back-up in my PSK, the magnitized needles are just my "back-up to the back-up"!

Mike

A (somewhat) more compass friendly version developed for marine use:
http://www.nauticalia.com/uk-info/products_in_action/recovery_magnet/3101.html

not disputing the credit card theory--------but on an episode of mythbusters they showed that its near impossible to remove info stored on a typical card with your "average magnet"

-just a thought?

How would you store the 60 pound test magnet in anything? I mean I think it would be hard to walk around town when you are magneticly drawn to every metal object....just my 2cents

What was the exposure time they used? I haven't used it on a credit card but it will work on floppy disks. Those thin magnets like you used to get from fast food places will do the job on floppy disks if you leave them overnight.

I'm also afraid of wiping my usb drives by accident - but they are cool!

There is no need to be concerned about that. At 60 lbs the needle will point straight to the magnet if its only a few feet away. My 12 lbs magnet can deflect a compass needle up to 15 degrees at about 3 feet.

It´s not that bad. Firstly most metals aren´t magnetic anyway. Secondly the magnetic field decreases rapidly with distance. If you keep a distance of about 3 feet from iron objects you may be pretty save.
A 60 lbs test magnet may well be too strong for EDC. It would not be to big or heavy though. They are available at the size of a matchbox and a weight of about 60 g. Those magnets are usually underestimated by most people who haven´t handled them before. A coworker destroyed a pair of 20 lbs magnets by dropping one on the table about 1 1/2 feet away from the other. Both were shattered on impact.

A magnet will only work to pickup your keys if the key ring is iron or steel.


With very few exceptions all keys are non ferrous metals. They are non magnetic and (despite what you see on TV when some spy or thief is copying a key in a movie,) they don’t generate any sparks when cut or scraped over something.


Stainless steel is also non magnetic, I recently bought a small ax to go with my Thermette and the package says it’s stainless steel. But a magnet sticks to it very well.

Some stainless steel has a little regular steel in it and a magnet will have a very small attraction to it, not enough to stick, but this ax draws a magnet to it like a kid is to a mud puddle.

Most key rings are made of steel. If you intend to use a magnet to find or retrieve the key.
It´s not quite true that stainless steel is non magnetic. It depends mostly on the portions of nickel and cobalt. There is austenitic steel which is non magnetic and ferritic steel which is magnetic. Only ferritic steel can be hardened because hardening depends on a change in crystal structure of steel during quenching. Austenitic steel does not have this change in crystal structure. That is why cutting tools and cutlery usually are magnetic.

I did that several times with the magnetic latch on an old cell phone case. All too easy to do. Sigh.

Ken K.

I carry one of those extendable magnetic pick ups. Rated at 10 pounds. More than enough for a set of keys. To give it more reach I removed the pen clip and epoxied a screweye to attach a string if needed.

i keep looking at the wedding ring magnets(about 2/3 down the page) and thinking how i could be worshiped as a god at a fantasy convention.

Magnets have a lot of uses. I don't keep one in my kit mainly because it could interfere with the compass or electronics.

A trick for getting a magnet on a string through a steel grate or other tight spot surrounded by magnetic metal is to roll up a piece of cardboard or stiff paper to form a tube. You pull the string through and pull the magnet up tight. Then you use the tube to push the magnet well past the metal. Once free the magnet can be allowed to drop free of the tube. The stiff tube also allows finer control over the string, in case the hole you went in through isn't exactly plumb over your target, as you fish for your lost keys.

I do carry a set of neodymium magnets in my EDC kit, but in form of ten matching pairs of magnetic jewelry clasps:



They are just 6x6mm x 1.0 gram each, and quite strong (almost 2 pounds for a pair). This particular shape is very versatile. You can attach a string or electric wire to them like this:



I'm using them not only for picking up metal objects, but on a daily basis for making quick and very reliable electrical connections to batteries (AAA/AA/C/D/button cells) and between batteries in series when improvising electrical circuits. They are also good at keeping small metal objects (like screws and nuts) together in a loose container such as a pocket. I'm using them also as mounting points in my vest to hang small zip-lock bags with the components of my distributed EDC kit (one magnet is sewn to the fabric near the top of the pocket, and another one taped inside of the zip-lock bag) which prevents accumulation of items on the bottom of a deep pocket. And similarly - for the automatic closures in my pockets (I'm wearing the ScotteVest Tactical System , which is utilizing magnetic closures already, but not on all of its 47+ pockets ). Using thin wire it is possible to make an electric motor, or dynamo generator with them (which will easily power a small radio or LED light)...
And finally, each of these magnets is precisely 1 gram. So, I can use them as weights for improvised scale.

This would appear to be a very viable means of fabricating a break-a-way connection on a lanyard or survival necklace.

Jim

I have a magnetic retreaval tool in my work trailer, and it is very handy. Once, several years ago, building management was taking me to a phone equipment room in a multi-story building when he dropped his key ring (with MASTER key) in the opening between the elevator and the wall. With no master key to access the elevator access, he was SOL. I taped the magnetic retriever to a fish tape and recovered the keys.
My magnetic retriever has a "keeper" on the magnetic end that isd basically just a piece of steel. The U shaped magnets we had in school also had those. They seem to significantly reduce the magnetism when they are on the magnet, and I was told in school that they keep the magnet from losing strength. Maybe a strong, small U shaped magnet with a keeper would work and not hurt too much other stuff nearby?