Thick Magnets

[Rick Aiello]

My son Luigi is interested in steel (the metal) , his favorite show is Forged in Fire.

We started a small project that evolved ..,

After bending

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First clean up

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After quenching in Brine

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We chose … 1.5” x 1/4” thick 1095 steel … The thickness used in the earliest A25s …

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We chose 1095 for its extremely high carbon content … we are only interested in magnetic remanence (retaining charge). We don’t care if it’s rugged … ha ha

Anyway,

It took 3 grown men (and one old guy) to bend it … the originals had a 1” diameter … these have the same 0.78” diameter of the later models.

We initially heat treated and quenched with this highly recommended industrial quenching oil for water quenching steel like 1095. I wasn’t that happy with the results … Weeg said “come on Dad, these aren’t freaking knives, let’s quench in water, we want them super hard, brittle is not an issue”

So we redid them and used a warm brine quench (ancient technique) … a much more rapid cool down (1550F to 900F in 0.6 seconds) but it’s risky … cracks, warps, etc

Paid off though, increased the magnetic remanence by 50 gauss .., edge value around 400 gauss

More than enough “juice” … Luigi is happy


Action shot :

https://youtube.com/shorts/MYqk9X-KnSI? ... GYGF9wyWMV

[Michael Kiese]

Shhh!!! That was supposed to be our "Secret"! LOL.

Nah, jus' joking.

I'm glad you had quality time with your kids.

Teach them all you know, so we'll have another generation of Aiello's to keep making the greatest horseshoes available!

Enjoy!

[Rick Aiello]

Bobby must have some sort of ESP or something

[Michael Kiese]

Bobby must have some sort of ESP or something

Nah, just GAS. lol.

[Rick Aiello]

Made a slug bobbin and wound it … gotta try these out

I’ll finish the big magnets later (I’m going to nickel plate them)

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[Bill Groner]

My son Luigi is interested in steel (the metal) , his favorite show is Forged in Fire. With a name like Luigi Aiello he should be interested in Pizza forged in fire! I worked with steel for 55 years. There is much to learn about it......wonderful, interesting, amazing stuff!

[Rick Aiello]

He got an accordion for Christmas, it’s like living in little Italy around here …

Yep, he’s very interested … I showed him this phase change graph and he picked right up on “avoiding the nose” via a fast quench …

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Anyway, I just dropped the pickup into my test B6 … yeah man … those big magnets are doing something cause it sounds huge (I test all pickups that come thru here in that B6 … so I know the guitar well)

Extremely pleased, maybe I can catch a good tune tonite on video

[Bill Groner]

Please catch a good one. Very anxious to hear it!

[John Castelletti]

This is the coolest thing I have seen in a while

[Rick Aiello]

Thanks , we’re having a blast

Weeg use to hang around and watch me sand cast when he was a toddler … I think he likes fire

[Rick Aiello]

It’s pretty distracting listening to a new pickup and trying to play well … so there’s that


https://youtu.be/TcU8-sUh0Lg?si=o_HU8OyGyVVzu1Sy

Recorded on my iPhone … sorry, all I have

PS. My wife looking at the credit card bill … “What’s with all the steel ?”

[Bill Groner]

Nice sound Rick. You and the new Pup!

[Rick Aiello]

Mahalo

We started with 1/8” for practice, then a few 3/16” , then the big 1/4”.

We’ve got some 7/32” too …,

The poplularity of knife making sure makes getting quality steel in just the right sizes easy … they have the best stores

[Michael Kiese]

It’s pretty distracting listening to a new pickup and trying to play well … so there’s that


https://youtu.be/TcU8-sUh0Lg?si=o_HU8OyGyVVzu1Sy

Recorded on my iPhone … sorry, all I have

PS. My wife looking at the credit card bill … “What’s with all the steel ?”

Really nice playing Rick! Seriously! Some of the best I’ve heard from you.

Those 1/4” magnets have some major Mana, and it’s inspiring you. I can tell.

[Rick Aiello]

Mucho mahalos …

It sounds so good, i had to do an experiment .

Keeping everything constant except the magnets, I switched out the thick ones for a standard 3/16” heat treated pair that I made the same day..

Before the test I took reading … 180 gauss (mid gap) for the thick ones … about 150 gauss for the 3/16” ones . Theses are not real high values (an Epiphone with its cobalt steel horseshoes read about 350 (mid gap) … best Rickys I’ve seen around 230 (mid gap) .So these magndts are respectable, but by no means high the answer must lie elsewhere

With the 3/16” on, you could hear a slight drop in output (180 vs 150 ) … That special tone was still there , just watered down some .

My thoughts, the 1095 was an excellent choice… with water quenching you get very high amounts of martensite.

The more martensite the better ..,

All I can think of

[Rick Aiello]

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I did the best I could preparing for nickel plating …

The salt water quench (a very violent process) left some scares I couldn’t get out. I didn't want to bare down too much and generate too much heat

[Rick Aiello]

Just waiting on my degreaser to arrive so I can plate these and get them off to Hawaii …

Heres the song I recorded using the thinnest 1095 we made … the standard 3/16” thick horseshoe

https://youtu.be/TQy5UUZaZSE?si=lEaOwzqxKe1oMzoY

[Michael Kiese]

I think you've quite possibly designed and fabricated the best horseshoes ever made.

George Beauchamp would be impressed. I'm sure he'd tip his hat to you.

[Rick Aiello]

Tough to compete with the cobalt magnet steel of the 30’s … there was even a specific magnetic alloy called KS Steel that was like 30% cobalt

[Michael Kiese]

Tough to compete with the cobalt magnet steel of the 30’s … there was even a specific magnetic alloy called KS Steel that was like 30% cobalt

True, but they didn't think about using a staggered coil like the P Bass design, and they didn't have Alnico polepieces like we do know... tradeoffs.... lol.

[Rick Aiello]

Mike is referring to one particular B6 that I wound and used alnico 5 poles instead of the standard steel slugs. It’s a beast in its own right

I have not put any alnico poles in the 1095s, just steel slugs, although we are thinking about alnico 2 as pole 1&8 in 8 stringers. It’s fixed the issue before without detriment to the classic tone …

[Rick Aiello]

That was fun …

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A pro plater could deal with the deep scars left by the water quench … too much for my belt sander too handle … they are seriously hard … and we like it like that

[Michael Kiese]

I think they look cool. Just come with a fancy marketing term, and it'll change people's perceptions of it.

"Battle Hardened"

I think that sounds good.

[Rick Aiello]

On that standard size set I did up that same day, I think I’ll leave the “patina” left behind by the quench on … and just clean it up and plate as is.

It has a rustic “Pewter” look …

I had to leave it on the 1/4”-ers on the curve … tried to fade it to shiny

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[Michael Kiese]

I think it looks cool. If that rustic pewter is the consequence of having higher gauss measurements, then that is a tradeoff happily and willingly made.

Can’t wait to hear ‘em!