Magnetized Mk1 Knife

[Ray42]

This may be a stupid question, but I am wondering if anyone else has ever come across a Mk1 USN knife that has had the blade magnitized, I recently purchased a Geneva Forge mk1 and was confused to find that the blade acts as a magnet and can pick up small metal objects. I have not been able to find another example of a knife being magnetic and am wondering whether anyone knows if the Navy ever had a contract for magnetized knives? I had origionally thought it was modified in this way sometime later, but a friend who is a physics major tells me that while it is relatively easy to temporarily make a knife blade a magnet it is much harder to permanently modify the blade in such a way and unlikely that it was done by an individual.

[SKIPH]

I have no clue! Never saw or heard of this before. SKIP

[sactroop]

It may have become magnetized by being stored near something that was strongly magnetic itself. We used to do that with screwdrivers.

[suwanneetrader]

I had one long ago and was told some were made for UDT use in WWII. I do not know if true or if so why. Just passing a story on. Richard

[usmce4]

I had one long ago and was told some were made for UDT use in WWII. I do not know if true or if so why. Just passing a story on. Richard

 

If I'm not mistaken, UDT stuff was most definitely ANTI-magnetic. As some anti-ship mines were contact detonated, many were magnetically detonated. A frogman swimming past such a mine with a magnetic knife would go "BOOM!"

 

Art

 

[Ray42]

Yeah I agree, my understanding was that the diver knives were anti-magnatic, which makes a lot of sense with magnetic mines. That being said not knowing how exactly the magnetic mines worked, (my understanding was that they would be set off in the presence of a metal object attracted to it) I am not sure if a knife that is in effect a magnet and would repel instead of attract the magnetic portion of the mine would set it off. It does make me wonder however, if that it seems that the navy experimented with altering the magnetic properties of knives maybe they felt that this could serve a purpose also.