A strong magnet wouldn't necessarily be a waste of time. Many pocket knives
with folding blades have a spring steel portion between the side
plates/liners that holds the blade closed when folded.

You may need a small bucket to carry away all the other steel items that may
be laying right there below the dock.

Most or all of the stainless steel knife blades that I've checked have been
magnetic, some are 440 alloy, others are unmarked.

--
WB
..........


"Don Foreman" wrote in message
...
I have to go in the lake tomorrow. Water temp at the surface is
about 69 F. Kids happily swim in water like that all day, or until
they turn blue and their mothers yank them out. I do *NOT* like
being cold, not even a little bit. But I gotta do it. When I was 16
Sally Brown and I jumped into the Detroit River when there was still
ice on it, but it's been quite a while since I was 16.

I was fishing off the dock this evening, tossing a bobber with a
leech to the reeds since there was a very nice NW breeze to help carry
it out there if I cast high. After a bit I noticed that my slip
bobber wasn't erecting. I tend to notice when things aren't erecting
as expected. Reeled it in, found that the bobber stop on the line
had gone missing so the hook, bait and sinker were going to the
bottom. It happens. Hm, I rummaged in my shirt pocket. Sho' nuff,
there was a bit of dental floss in there. That'll make a fine bobber
stop, just wind it on the line like a needle knot or a snell, snug up
and trim. Got to the trim part, dug out my trusty Gentleman's Folder
pocket knife.

Part of the perverse nature of inanimate objects is that tools have a
strong affinity for lakes. Cosmic forces yanked the knife from my
hand to fall to the dock, and then conspired to make it bounce and
rotate in both roll and yaw so it could exactly fit between the deck
slats and get to the lake beneath. It'd take 1000 tries to get that
right at a carnival with a kewpie doll at stake, but with a lake
beneath the slats the outcome was as certain as sunset.

I really like that knife! They're not available any more. I want
mine back! It's a one-hand opener, very thin, very light, 3" ATS34
stainless blade heat-treated to Rc 59-60 that takes and holds a razor
edge.

Earlier today I'd used it to scrape corrosion from some battery
terminals. After that, four licks on a ceramic "steel" restored its
keen edge to where it'd cut thru a ripe tomato skin by its own
weight.

I don't know if ATS34 is magnetic or not but I'm inclined to doubt
it. Else I could use the big donut magnet on the end of a string --
except that the magnet is in the bed of the truck and I drove the
Camry this trip. So I gotta dunk my dainty self.

The good news is that I know right where it dropped, the water is
quite clear and it's a firm sand bottom, not loon**** like in some MN
lakes. Even if I can't see it, I should be able to feel it with my
toes. Fortunately, it was folded when it dropped.

Minnesota Mary, who thinks 40 is wet teeshirt weather, offered to do
the honors while very tactfully avoiding any use of the term
"candyass". It's tempting, but I'm the one that dropped it so I'm
the one that should fetch it.