Dowling Magnets Iron Filings, Jar (12 ounces) with shaker lid

As I was frying up my pork chops, I decided to try this new type of pepper, and oh my God does this stuff taste horrible. Leaves a metallic taste in your mouth for hours after. Crunchy as all get-out. The really strange thing is, we were all on a camping trip when I ate those pork chops, and the next day, everyone's compass kept pointing toward me. Very odd to say the least, and I'm starting to suspect it is the reason I have to avoid being around magnets now as well. Seriously - Great product. Decent price. Works great for making ferro-fluid as the iron filings are very small.

I play around with a lot of old things - such as crystal radio circuits. I was looking for a somewhat coarse bottle of Iron Filings (having previously bought "fine" which was like powder) for use in making makeshift slug-tuned iron core tuning inductors. These Iron Filings are just "grainy" enough to fill the bill perfectly. Around the size of sand or salt grains. PERFECT for my needs.

These filings sprinkled over a clean sheet of paper laid on top of the device whose fields you seek to understand is a very low cost and effective way to make the magnetic circuit visible. Whether the use is professional or instructional these filings are of a size and shape that is very effective of the purpose. Can be re-used indefinitely.

Buy the iron filings with a bar magnet and observe magnet filed lines for a lesson on magnetism. These iron filings are particularly nice because the are not sharp and don't get in cuts on fingers etc. For filings, these are safe for use with kids. The shaker top is nice, although I found the filings got in the top that "turns" to open and close the choice for big or small holes. Once the filings get into the turning mechanism it is becomes impossible to use the shaker part of the lid to close the bottle. You might save the white paper insert to finally shut the bottle when you are done.

Did you ever want/need iron filings so badly that you attached the largest diamond bit onto the old speedy driller/polisher tool in your lab/workshop and went to work on an old horseshoe in a vice, collecting the dust and thinking that it would satisfy any semblance of an idea of what iron filings should do in the lab? Well, I didn't either, but that's where I was at when I discovered this product for sale in the form it's packaged in. I've worked with it for a while in my lab and I've not only "passed" it for everything I originally had in mind, but with each test came four or five new ideas and as I've been checking them out, they all worked too. Unfortunately, most of them wouldn't be patentable, nor subject to copyright, but if I trusted you readers on the net not to rip off my ideas and make a half ton of money from them, I'd love to sit here and explain at least half of them to you because they're the kind that make any secret science geek sit up and scream WOW!!! and then the follow-on project is really alot neater still and the scream is more like %!!!!~~&-A... When you order it, get two bottles like I did, so's by the time the first one is all used up, you still have a second one hanging around until your next fresh order comes in.

Product came quickly and as discribed. My kids used them in slime and they were very magnetic. HOWEVER the next day the slime was a rusted blob. Do not use these in anything where they will get wet. Also make sure the kids go outside to wash their hands off after playing with them. My kids washed their hands over the sink full of dishes. The filings left little rust spots on a lot of the dishes.

With fine metallic powder like this, one would think to wear appropriate mask and careful not to inhale the dust. After opening the bottle, we thought it's better to discard than to risk any long term health consequences.

I am going to resist my urge to provide a sarcastic product review. I will say this is a bottle of iron filings, if that is what you need this is it. Be aware that it is very very fine, (think grains of salt or smaller). If you get this for some purpose other than using with magnets i would recommend you get a strong magnet to assist in cleaning up the inevitable spills. I used this for wiring my finished upper floor from the basement.... yea i know "what does iron have to do with home wiring?"... well i was originally going to place a series of strong magnets on the floor upstairs then see where along the basement ceiling the filings were drawn to and use that as the marker for my drilling points... unfortunately even the neodymium magnets (the 1" cubes) was not enough for this. What did work however was pouring some on the upstairs floor and sliding the magnet along from downstairs with a person upstairs telling me when to stop sliding. Not perfect but it works when you don't have great landmarks to measure from or a very narrow margin for error.