Steel Dust and Needles

“That lodestone and steel dust is a powerful thing .” The New Orleans informant who said it was describing a bottle of someone’s urine, boiled and fixed with both, kept in a corner with the name written seven times (Hyatt 2823 · New Orleans, La. · informant 823).

Steel dust was lodestone’s partner. Where the stone pulled, the dust gave it something to pull. In Hyatt’s records, especially in New Orleans, the two go together so often that one rarely appears without the other.

What it is

Steel dust is fine iron or steel filings. Hyatt’s informants bought it by the dime’s worth at the drug store, and he noted that it was usually bought ready-made.

A Wilson informant made his own, filing it off a steel tool, mixing it with quicksilver, and working it into a salve with lard (Hyatt 2218 · Wilson, N. Car. · informant 1513). Today the same material is often sold as magnetic sand.

Its job was always the same. A New Orleans woman put it simply: “yuh git cheh some steel dust – dat’s drawin’ – an’ lodestone, dat’s drawin’ .” She put both in a man’s left sock and buried it toe pointing to the house, to keep him home (Hyatt 4972 · New Orleans, La. · informant 798).

What Hyatt’s informants said

Steel dust fed the lodestone and drew in whatever the worker wanted: a lover, customers, money or luck at the table. It went into bags, bottles, baths, lamps and shoes.

It also carried a charge, and informants spoke of it the way they spoke of electricity. A New Orleans gambler described a toby with steel dust, lodestone, nine needles and nine pins that gave a fearful feeling before a fight. If blood was drawn near it, it had to be renewed: “it goes away the same as a battery on a automobile .” (Hyatt 1741 · New Orleans, La. · informant 879)

Hyatt gave one rite the heading Steel Dust Hands, a Warning. The informant mixed steel dust with graveyard dirt, a silver dime and oil of cinnamon for a gambling bag, then warned that steel dust draws like lodestone, even lightning (Hyatt 2315 · New Orleans, La. · informant 1569).

Drawing work

• Scrubs. Steel dust with cinnamon, sugar and van-van in the scrub water, and steel dust set in the corners of the place to draw people (Hyatt 2491 · New Orleans, La. · informant 821).
• Bags. Ten cents of steel dust sewn into red flannel and sprinkled with Jockey Club, kept damp with perfume (Hyatt 2023 · New Orleans, La. · informant 860). With lodestone, cinnamon and a silver dime it made a van-van bag for luck (Hyatt 2368 · New Orleans, La. · informant 798).
• Lamps and candles. A man’s name pinned to a lamp wick over steel dust, lodestone and sugar (Hyatt 8592 · New Orleans, La. · informant 798). A candle set in a saucer of cinnamon, sugar, steel dust and quicksilver (Hyatt 2920 · New Orleans, La. · informant 851).
• Shoes. Steel dust and John de Conker powder under the insole with a dime (Hyatt 1363 · New Orleans, La. · informant 826).
• The garter. Steel dust and sugar sewn into a red and yellow ribbon bow on the left garter, so a man would give money (Hyatt 1748 · New Orleans, La. · informant 857).

Needles

Needles often went in with the dust: steel drawing steel. A New Orleans gambler sewed a brand-new needle into a leather bag with five-finger grass, lodestone and steel dust (Hyatt 1860 · New Orleans, La. · informant 866).

In bottle work, nine needles and nine pins went into urine with lodestone and steel dust, bottle turned upside down, to make a man stay (Hyatt 4354 · New Orleans, La. · informant 798). Another bottle added tacks, honey and John de Conker to tie up a woman so she could not do harm (Hyatt 4270 · New Orleans, La. · informant 877).

Harm

• A name folded away from the worker, with nine needles, nine pins, steel dust, devil’s vinegar and ammonia, then buried (Hyatt 1834 · New Orleans, La. · informant 1558).
• Socks sprinkled with steel dust and buried to run a person crazy (Hyatt 5027 · New Orleans, La. · informant 1558).
• A left foot track bottled with cayenne, salt and steel dust and thrown in the river to make the person wander (Hyatt 5628 · New Orleans, La. · informant 804).

In their own words

“Be sho’ tuh take it off yo’ in de case of thunder or lightnin’ storm.”

(Hyatt 2315 · New Orleans, La. · informant 1569)

“Den yo’ act’lly goin’ tuh die.”

(Hyatt 1834 · New Orleans, La. · informant 1558)

“Grease yore han’s wit it an’ when yo’ shake han’s wit anybody , dat’s conjurin’ anyone .”

(Hyatt 2218 · Wilson, N. Car. · informant 1513)

“Dat will make yo’ drift.”

(Hyatt 5628 · New Orleans, La. · informant 804)

How it’s worked today

Steel dust, now usually sold as magnetic sand, is still the standard food for lodestones. Workers sprinkle it on the stone after dressing it, and add it to mojo hands, bottles, candle work and floor washes for drawing money, love and luck.

Needles and pins remain common in bottle work, in both drawing and binding jobs, much as they appear in Hyatt’s New Orleans records. See also our entries on Lodestone and Lamps.

Learn the work

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Source: Harry Middleton Hyatt, Hoodoo – Conjuration – Witchcraft – Rootwork, 5 vols., 1970-1978. Numbers refer to Hyatt’s own item numbers; the town and informant number follow. Written by Hoodoo Witch in our own words, with short quotations from Hyatt’s informants for reference.