I came across a large amount of older turquoise rings and some of them were magnetic. The weird thing about it is that they were only magnetic behind the stone.
Curiosity peaked and I found one that already had a stone missing and was also magnetic on the remaining stone and found that the stone is indeed magnetic.
It looks as if the stone kid stuck to this magnetic material. This is a first for me.
Here is what I found.
Probably the backing material has steel powder in it.
I believe Devcon brand epoxy aka “liquid steel” has steel or iron powder in it for strength. It is a popular backing material for turquoise cabachons. The yellowish powder is sawdust, which helps the stone to absorb shocks and keep it raised in the bezel.
Yes, it is the backing.
https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=devcon+epoxy&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
some reading here on the lapidary forum about different backing materials used
