This forum has been discontinued.
January 21, 1999 at 05:51:23
Hi relic hunters,
Just got back from a week of adventure and hunting in the jungles of Panama. Came back with the usual assortment of colonial and 49er-era relics from the old town site of Chagres, including a variety of cannon balls (which may have been fired by the Spaniards at the the famous pirate Henry Morgan as his buccaneers attacked the nearby fort in 1670). Can anybody recommend the best way to go about cleaning and preserving cannon balls and other large iron objects (ax heads, etc.)? I've read a couple of different ideas about what to do but wanted to hear from you experts first. By the way, I've only dug one Civil War cannon ball--a 12 pounder that came out of a cavalry camp with soft dry sand. It's in much worse condition than the much older balls I've taken out of the wet muddy soil of Panama. Thanks much for any information you can provide.
