Magnetic induction-free abrasive wire sawing is a hybrid process that introduces the high gradient magnetic field into traditional free abrasive wire sawing technology. A ferromagnetic saw wire is magnetized by the external uniform magnetic field, and it then generates a high gradient magnetic field around itself. Magnetic abrasive particles are attracted to the surface of the wire by the magnetic force, which leads to more abrasive particles in the sawing channel. This novel method effectively improves the utilizing rate of abrasive particles and is helpful to improve the wire sawing performance. In this study, the formation mechanism of the magnetic abrasive particle layer on the surface of saw wire is investigated theoretically and experimentally. Based on force analysis of the magnetic abrasive particle on the wire surface, a mathematical model for analyzing the formation mechanism of the magnetic abrasive particle layer is presented and studied by the numerical analysis software MATIAB. An experimental platform utilizing a high-speed camera is constructed to observe the formation of the magnetic abrasive particle layer on the wire. The experimental results reveal that the magnetized wire can adsorb lots of magnetic abrasive particles, thus leading to the formation of a magnetic abrasive particle layer. The shape of the magnetic abrasive particle layer approximates to an annular sector. Moreover, the thickness of the magnetic abrasive particle layer increases as the external uniform magnetic field strength increases. The experimental results verify the theoretical results. The present model is applied to study the formation mechanism of the magnetic abrasive particle layer on the surface of saw wire in magnetic induction-free abrasive wire sawing in detail. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.