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Hey everyone, recently I found a pack of rare earth magnets I bought maybe a decade ago. I was planning on using them, but I noticed that there's some kind of gunk stuck to the mangets now. It seems like iron sand or rust maybe, a dark grey granular substance that sticks to itself and the magnets, and is almost impossible to clean off as the magnets I have are so small.

I was wondering if anyone else has run into this and if it's possible to clean it? I'd like to salvage these magnets, and at the moment I'm concerned about leaving tiny magnetic particles everywhere.

Im not familiar with this occurring.

Are you able to separate the individual magnets?

Do they still work?

Do you need to clean them ?

best way is getting a stronger better magnet to outclass your rare earth magnet.

If they’ve been beat up a bit, those could be bits of magnet.

If you’re having a hard time removing the crud, it’s unlikely to fall off and make a mess.

I’d suggest taking one magnet, and using it to collect the crud from the other magnets. As you clean a magnet, put it away so it doesn’t collect more crud. Worst case scenario you salvage all but one.

Argive wrote:Im not familiar with this occurring.

Are you able to separate the individual magnets?

Do they still work?

Do you need to clean them ?

I'm able to seperate them, and they still seem to work. They're not dirty but washing them off with water didn't seem to work. It definitely seems to be rust or some type of corrosion though, trying to rinse them off revealed that a few of the magnets have been worn down to a much smaller size

greatbigtree wrote:If they’ve been beat up a bit, those could be bits of magnet.

If you’re having a hard time removing the crud, it’s unlikely to fall off and make a mess.

I’d suggest taking one magnet, and using it to collect the crud from the other magnets. As you clean a magnet, put it away so it doesn’t collect more crud. Worst case scenario you salvage all but one.

Definitely seems like bits of magnets now. I do have some larger magnets so I'll try using one of the larger ones to clean up the small ones!

It's the plating on them.
Nickel is magnetic (it's the shiny plating on most magnets). There's usually a zinc layer underneath it (to get the nickel to stick to it - which is pretty much standard for nickel-plating anything.).

It will chip and oxidise over time (which then exposes the zinc to oxidation).

Make sure to cover the second magnet with plastic wrap otherwise the iron shavings are just going to cling to the second magnet.

^ VERY good advice.

Duct Tape.

Roll a stack of magnets along a piece of duct tape, this will clean the outside of the stack. Then start pulling the magnets off one at a time and touch the ends to the tape to clean the flats.