In this study, a magnetic flux leakage (MFL) method that is known as a suitable non-destructive evaluation (NDE) method for continuum ferromagnetic members was applied to detect the various types of local damages of the steel wire ropes. 3types of artificial damages, such as cutting, corrosion and compression, were formed on wire rope specimen. A multi-channel MFL sensor head that can maintain the constant lift-off was fabricated to scan the wire rope specimen. The fabricated MFL sensor head measured the magnetic flux signals from the three types of damaged specimens. The capability of damage detection according to damage type was verified from the measured MFL signals from each type of damage. And, the characteristics of the MFL signals were compared and analyzed by type of damage.