Ecnerwal wrote:

I'm a scrounge. I work with computers. I pull magnets from dead hard
drives - they typically have one or two really strong rare earth magnets
which are handy for various purposes. I've recently begun to wonder if
the sheilds or pole pieces around those magnets (the ones that sit on
the back side of the head apparatus to position it) are plain steel,
which I've pretty much assumed would be the case (cheap) or if that
sheild might just be mu-metal.

If there is either an easy way to tell, or if somone on here knows in
general or specific cases from the manufacturing end, I'd like to know.

The mu-metal I've seen was thin, maybe 20 ga.
and a nice deep gray color with a very slight
texture. Unfortunately physically deforming
it will destroy it's shielding properties so
it is difficult to salvage and reuse