How does cutlery become magnetic

Add that to the magnets Enucatl mentions which are sometimes used by restaurants to pick up the cutlery and the hysteresis property of ferromagnetic materials, and you have a possible explanation for why two pieces of stainless cutlery seem to be magnetized and can attract each other. They use magnets to pick up the silverware so that it's not thrown away with the leftovers. Where is the cutlery stored? Is it near one of the building piles? That could have been magnetized when the restaurant was built and they could be inducing the magnetism into your silverware.

I've experienced this before - I've had CRT TVs and monitors that could not be adjusted because the magnetism from the pile was affecting them so much. The CRTs were about 1 ft away from the pile. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? It works really well.

When you are scraping plates you often go fast and sometimes you miss a fork or a knife under a pile of napkins or are moving so fast, the utensils slide out of your hand.

The slanted part is so strongly magnetized, when you drop a piece of cutlery straight down towards the hole, it flies over and attached to the magnet. This tube had two big and very strong magnets imbedded in either side. You would thump a plate sideways onto the rubber tube, thus depositing most of the half eaten food into the trash without having to touch it.

The magnets were strong enough to grab any silverware you might have missed normally the silverware went into a separate soak bin. They were also powerful enough that you needed to be strong to remove any silverware stuck to them, and the silverware would be magnetic after that. As long as you pick a good magnetic strip, the knives will not slip or fall. That being said, there is a balance. If you choose a magnet too weak, then the knives may slip.

If you choose a magnet too strong, then it can take more effort every time to pull the knives out. Unlike traditional wooden knife blocks , this Kuhn Rikon block is not tilted.

You remove the knife by pulling straight up. However, this type of holder is more sanitary and keeps your knives sharper since they do not rest in wood slots. Stainless Steel Series: These stainless steels generally contain chromium and manganese and are magnetic. While they still exhibit the corrosion resistance that is typical of stainless steel in general, they are less corrosion-resistant than the series, and therefore typically cost less.

If you have the space, a magnetic knife strip mounted on the wall above your counter is a great way to store your knives. It looks stylish and it saves counter space, too. Plus, you'll be able to see each blade. That means you won't need to remember which blade went where in a drawer or block slot. There are several different types of stainless steels. The two main types are austenitic and ferritic , each of which exhibits a different atomic arrangement.

Due to this difference, ferritic stainless steels are generally magnetic while austenitic stainless steels usually are not. Austenitic Stainless Steel : Austenitic stainless steels have a high amount of austenite which makes them mostly non-magnetic.

Even though grades such as and stainless steel have high amounts of iron in their chemical composition, austenite means they are non-ferromagnetic. A ferritic stainless steel owes its magnetism to two factors: its high concentration of iron and its fundamental structure.

Both and stainless steels are austenitic , when they cool, the iron remains in the form of austenite gamma iron , a phase of iron which is nonmagnetic. Related Posts Mole: Foods Demystified Tofu: Foods Demystified Kimchi: Foods Demystified Bourbon Everything You Need to Know Curry: Foods Demystified