# WOW! Live and Learn!



## PenMan1 (Jan 4, 2012)

I've been making Red Tru-Stone and Black Tru-Stone pens for years!

I am currently working with a new design in which I want the cap to attach to the body magnetically with no annoying threads to rub accross the fingers when writing.

I sat a black Tru-Stone with gold web down on my bandsaw near my magnetic push stick. The Tru-Stone magically slide across the bandsaw table to the big magnet.

I immediately went to my Tru-Stone bin and pulled out all of my Tru-Stone blanks. Only the black with gold web blanks were magnetically attracted.

Is this something new? Has it always done this and I just missed it? This opens up tons of design possibilities involving eliminating threads!


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## JF36 (Jan 4, 2012)

PenMan1 said:


> I've been making Red Tru-Stone and Black Tru-Stone pens for years!
> 
> I am currently working with a new design in which I want the cap to attach to the body magnetically with no annoying threads to rub accross the fingers when writing.
> 
> ...



That is very cool. I am curious to see if this if happening to more people.


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## PTsideshow (Jan 4, 2012)

That is an interesting catch.

I don't know what they are using to make the tru-stone that you have but it is a good bet that it is an oxide based mineral, one of the assorted iron ore or iron rich minerals One on them is magnetite which is the most magnetic mineral. You can try and see id it will attract steel bits, It will leave a black streak on an unglazed tile.

That would be the reason behind its choice as a black color, There are a number of oxides that range in color from yellow reddish thru black. And you are right with the use of rare earth magnets you might have stumbled on to some thing. The only restriction might be the quality and amount that is mixed in each new batch. 

:clown:


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## PenMan1 (Jan 4, 2012)

I don't know if I somehow magnatized the black or if it came that way. I'm currently trying to magnatize the red with gold web!


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## Silverado (Jan 4, 2012)

I also have a piece of Black with Gold Matrix and it to is magnetic. Just tried the red with Gold Matrix and it isn't magnetic.


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## PenMan1 (Jan 4, 2012)

All of the black Tru-Stone blanks that I have are magnetically charged. These blanks came from 4 or 5 different vendors here, and they all seem to have about the same magnetic charge.

I can't make any of the other colors attract. I was thinking that maybe it had something to do with the "web", but it is apparently some type of iron oxide found only in the black (I have almost ever color of Tru-Stone).


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## PenMan1 (Jan 4, 2012)

ROTFLMAO! 

HAS ANYBODY here ever tried to cast old cassette or 8 track tapes?

These old tapes (video tape, too) are LOADED with Ferric (Iron) Oxide! If it will cast, this may be the bodies for my new threadless closing pens!


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## Haynie (Jan 4, 2012)

Neat.  Make a magnitizer and put a blank in it.  That way you could turn the whole blank into a magnet.


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## PenMan1 (Jan 4, 2012)

Haynie said:


> Neat. Make a magnitizer and put a blank in it. That way you could turn the whole blank into a magnet.


 
Working on it as we speak! Where the heck do you find a 6V "Latern battery", anymore?.....That's the way we made the magnitizers in scouts!:biggrin:


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## Wingdoctor (Jan 4, 2012)

Probably at a sporting goods store or department. They are used for camping.


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## el_d (Jan 4, 2012)

How about the M3 blanks? those are supposed to be metal.......


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## ctubbs (Jan 4, 2012)

Your 12V auto battery will work even better.  Use caution as there will be twice the voltage available so you may need to use more wire in the coil.  You should generate a larger magnetic field with the 12V battery.
Charles


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## PenMan1 (Jan 4, 2012)

el_d said:


> How about the M3 blanks? those are supposed to be metal.......


 
I don't have any. Those have not been big sellers for me, so I discontinued them. THAT would be handy information to have! If they are magnetic, I would pick up a few!


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## ctubbs (Jan 4, 2012)

el_d said:


> How about the M3 blanks? those are supposed to be metal.......



Missed this while typing. Most any iron based metal should magnetize to some extent.  It may take a whack with a hammer while teh metal is in the coil to help, but it should work.
Charles


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## Haynie (Jan 4, 2012)

You scouts were pansies.  My dad made me one when I was in 5th grade that you plugged into the wall.  I learned 3 things with that contraption
1-Using tinfoil from the school cafeteria as a fuse will blow out the main fuse in an elementary school and produce enough smoke to set off the fire alarms when the power is switched back on.

2-Principals are not very forgiving when the elementary school is evacuated because you wanted to impress your class with science magic

3-Make sure the friggin plug is not plugged in when you touch both nails.  

Number 1 and 2 were great fun, number 3 taught me a hell of a lot of respect for electricity.




PenMan1 said:


> Haynie said:
> 
> 
> > Neat. Make a magnitizer and put a blank in it. That way you could turn the whole blank into a magnet.
> ...


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## randywa (Jan 4, 2012)

ctubbs said:


> Your 12V auto battery will work even better. Use caution as there will be twice the voltage available so you may need to use more wire in the coil. You should generate a larger magnetic field with the 12V battery.
> Charles


 
I won't admit any personal knowledge but I hear that if you charge a screwdriver on a 24v system, like a dozer, you have a tool that sticks to everything. I own one that you can't hardly get a screw off of. Make nice sparks too.


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## Turned Around (Jan 4, 2012)

i found out they were magnatized when i first turned one and a bunch of the shavings/dust went right to my magnetic "loose parts" tray.


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## PenMan1 (Jan 4, 2012)

Turned Around said:


> i found out they were magnatized when i first turned one and a bunch of the shavings/dust went right to my magnetic "loose parts" tray.


 

ROTFLMAO:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

I turn a LOT of black Tru Stone! AT LEAST, now, I know what that black particulate that keeps "sticking" to the blades on the dust collector IS!

I thought it was "some lubricant" leaking onto the impeller blades! MAN! Sometimes I am SO obtuse!


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## joefyffe (Jan 4, 2012)

Andy, I just checked a piece of cobaltium Mokume M3 with rare earth mags. Nothing! I guess if it does have metal in it, it must be of some non-ferrous type

Edit:  Just found a Classic and a Damascus in the drawer and checked them.  The Damascus had a verrrrrrry light pull.     Nothing on the Classic.


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## nativewooder (Jan 4, 2012)

You can get the batteries at any real hardware store.  Is Beck & Gregg still in business.  They're not too far from you.  (If you like Atlanta traffic!)


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## JeffT (Jan 4, 2012)

Perhaps they are using iron pyrite (Fools Gold)... Might do well for a stylus since that requires a conducting surface...


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## PenMan1 (Jan 4, 2012)

Barry: 
You bring a tear to my eye! Beck and Gregg WAS a hardware store!

I'm not sure of all the details, but, it did involve the "second great Atlanta fire, or the FIRST great fire of Atlanta that wasn't arson, perpetrated by the "Scalawags of the North". B&G exsisted for a while, moved locations, got bought by General, and by all accounts are defunct!

On a similar note, is Peeler Grading (that GREAT grove grading company that brought Ruby Red Grapefruit, Tangelo Orange, and Navel Orange to prominence in Ft. Pierce, Vero Beach and Melborne, FL area) still around?

At last notice, they were fading fast. Seems like we are loosing all of our great Southern "Institutions".


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## PenMan1 (Jan 4, 2012)

FWIW:
All of my black Tru Stone with gold web and all of the Tru Stone Black with Gold Matrix are magnetic! Yippee!


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## MarkD (Jan 4, 2012)

This is a very interesting thread! The things we learn here. 
Have you tried to magnetize any desert iron wood yet? :biggrin:


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## Frank Nemke sr (Jan 4, 2012)

Walmart carries them in sporting goods


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## bitshird (Jan 4, 2012)

Andy this is some cool information, should make for some different uses of the black web Tru Stone. never considered it, but now it would seem to be the web being like someone said, Iron Pyrite, but I would have thought all of the gold webbing would have been re-constituted Iron Pyrite, now I'm going to be thinking about this till I fall asleep. Curses upon you :wink::wink:


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## PenMan1 (Jan 4, 2012)

FWIW:
I just took a BIG magnet over to the Tru-Stone bin (the bandsaw push stick was a tiny 1" earth magnet) and put it in front of the bin.

ALL of the Black Tru-Stone with Gold Web and Gold Matrix almost LEAPED onto the magnet!


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## PenMan1 (Jan 4, 2012)

The more I go into this, the more I believe that black Tru-Stone is made from almost pure "fools gold".


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