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Devac  ·  1214 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Pubski: July 28, 2021

    As it happened, a thick coating of river mud and grit coated the magnet after the first few drops.

Lol, that too. Learned my lesson trying to get the spilled ferrofluid off of a magnet once.

    Any guesses about the mystery object? It feels like a solid mass of metal, but may have been separate parts fused by corrosion.

Hull bolt? I have no idea.

    The most interesting things might not contain much iron, though. A key ring with keys, a cell phone, even a modern gun can be mostly plastic.

Some ceramics contain iron in them. Not just as glaze or pigment or literal ceramic magnets, but it's added into the clay/other material. Dunno if it would work, but then again you have a strong magnet on your hands so maybe it could pick some fun bauble.