Swift Silver??

[Brushy Bandit]

I think so too EC Mason, in my mind it has turned a legend and myth into fact.

 

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[EC.Mason]

You all may have broken this wide open. Ill text you both tomorrow.

 

[KY Hiker]

Silver melts at around 1760 F. Lead is much lower at around 325 F. A cast iron skillet will melt around 2200 F. If your friend can find an old junker iron skillet and build himself a good deep pit fire (like dakota fire pit) he can get what lead is in there our fairly easy. Next to come out would be Zinc around 785 F. All the good stuff won't melt out until 1760 F and up. Doubtful you could get a pit fire that hot anyway so at least it would be less contaminated than it was found.

 

[EC.Mason]

Great idea Hiker! Thanks for that info.

Silver melts at around 1760 F. Lead is much lower at around 325 F. A cast iron skillet will melt around 2200 F. If your friend can find an old junker iron skillet and build himself a good deep pit fire (like dakota fire pit) he can get what lead is in there our fairly easy. Next to come out would be Zinc around 785 F. All the good stuff won't melt out until 1760 F and up. Doubtful you could get a pit fire that hot anyway so at least it would be less contaminated than it was found.

 

[KY Hiker]

You all may have broken this wide open. Ill text you both tomorrow.

You all keep the rest of us up to date please. Good luck, hope you find the remnants of the workings in that rock house!

 

[EC.Mason]

This is Brushy Bandit and DSLs find, they have just been nice enough to share some information with me. Im hoping to meet them both soon and learn from them and hopefully show them something that may hep them as well. These guys may have found something that can prove there were mines in Elliott County. I appreciate them sharing with us.

You all keep the rest of us up to date please. Good luck, hope you find the remnants of the workings in that rock house!

 

[Brushy Bandit]

Great info, but I think itd be a move in the wrong direction to alter them from there present state. I mean what melting has been done to them was done 100, 200, 300, 400? Years ago.

 

[EC.Mason]

I agree I would mount those babies above my mantle! Hiker does provide some interesting info on how to test for silver though. I actually wrote that idea down in my notes.

 

[KY Hiker]

I thought you all may want to know how 'pure' the samples were. Photo, weigh and measure what you found. Get the GPS coordinates for the find location and document is all. Then take a part of one of them and see what you found. Like I said lead is soft and a knife should be able to shave slivers off, silver won't. Silver is around $20/oz so its not a money thing, its a purity thing.

 

[KY Hiker]

If/when you go back to the find location. I would bet there are smaller 'drops' or spills to get as samples. That is, if the sight was used regularly to melt ore. Check further downhill from previous location as smaller spills would wash/roll down easier. Good Luck.

 

[Brushy Bandit]

I would like to know hiker, but I think it would be disaster to destroy the pieces themselves. Great information tho. Thank ya

 

[EC.Mason]

Good idea! Always check downhill. I do that when I dig a rockhouse for Indian artifacts. The power of gravity! lol

 

[Brushy Bandit]

I'd have to hold my breath to check much farther down hill. Haha

 

[EC.Mason]

lol I understand. I do have some underwater detectors I could loan ya!

 

[Brushy Bandit]

I couldn't borrow them, we could possibly get together and check it out. I'm pretty sure the water gets really deep quickly in the spot where the smaller piece was found.

 

[Brushy Bandit]

I do have some friends on the fire department dive team. It would great practice for them....maybe?

 

[EC.Mason]

Be no problem to loan them to you. I said underwater detectors but they are actually AT Pros which can be used under water. Yeah I would be figuring out a way to really hit that site. May be more in the water.

 

[KY Hiker]

Old Farmers Almanac says a cooler than normal and drier than normal Summer. Maybe wait for a bit of a drought then try your luck with the detector.

 

[DSL]

I thought you all may want to know how 'pure' the samples were. Photo, weigh and measure what you found. Get the GPS coordinates for the find location and document is all. Then take a part of one of them and see what you found. Like I said lead is soft and a knife should be able to shave slivers off, silver won't. Silver is around $20/oz so its not a money thing, its a purity thing.

You are correct in it not being a "money thing". It's a history thing! Absolutely no way that any person who found the pieces would even remotely consider melting it down just to determine purity. IMHO, they're worth a 1,000 times it's weight in silver as is just because of the possible history behind them. Can u imagine if Native Americans or possibly Swift himself had something to do with those pieces??!! It could potentially be the find of the century and an invaluable piece of history. Not to mention turning legend into fact.
I agree with Mason on your process of determining the purity of silver content. I just feel it would be a travesty to perform that on these 2 specimens.

 

[Brushy Bandit]

I'm curious if there is some way to date the pieces. Will carbon dating give information that will prove when they were smelted, or are there other tests that can be done?