To assess the potential benefits of magna brush technology for fingerprint development, a study was done of the damage to latent prints caused by brushing with conventional squirrel hair and glass fiber brushes as well as with the magna brush. Particularly with sebum-rich prints, the glass fiber and squirrel hair brushes could cause partial or total obliteration of the ridge pattern. For dark fingerprint development on a variety of different surfaces, excellent print qualities were achieved using a magnetic wand to apply iron flake powders. This technology causes less damage to latent fingerprints by ridge smearing and introduces several new product development avenues which are outlined. 9 figures and 6 references