Tumbled iron finds from 2017

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Over the past couple of months while waiting for winter to abate here in the east, I've been tumbling some of my more interesting iron finds. No great surprises here and I have no idea what I'm going to do with all this stuff, as none of it is really worth displaying out side of my basement workshop. I think it's part of the responsibility we have as detectorists to either reuse, re-purpose or recycle the items we find. All the finds I bring home are immediately relegated to our basement, while I wash and sort them.

My wife has commented, that occasionally I'll 'sneak' a new piece upstairs where she'll notice it on display in our china cabinet.

I start by tumbling the items in ½” — ¾” aquarium gravel, a ½ cup of beach sand and liquid dish soap. I let this tumble for 24 — 36hrs, I then rinse it out, refill the tumbler with the same mixture and let it tumble for another 2 days. After a couple of days, I’ll then empty the tumbler, rinse off the items and re-tumble for another 2 — 3 days with just the gravel and the dish soap. Now I need to seal the metal, as it will start to rust again after just a couple of days exposure to the air. So, I brush on a mixture of mineral oil and bees wax, which can be washed off later with soap & water if desired.

I have plans to reuse the door handle and the iron latch on my back-garden gate. I'll likely end up selling the axe heads on Kijiji, as they really should be put back into service. You'll see a picture here of some of the 'eyeball finds' and other items I've found detecting over the years that I'm not allowed to bring upstairs to display!

I've also included pics of my latest hunt from last Sunday morning... yup two more axe heads and another bar shoe!

Thanks for looking,
Dave

 

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[pa plateau hiker]

Tumbling iron must be very noisy. It would keep me awake all night. I think I'll stick to electrolysis. You must have a very large tumbling machine.

 

[TheHarleyMan2]

You could always restore the ax heads. Here is a guy who restored a meat clever.

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Tumbling iron must be very noisy. It would keep me awake all night. I think I'll stick to electrolysis. You must have a very large tumbling machine.

Thank you for your post and for your interest pa plateau hiker.
Both of my tumblers have rubber drums, so when they're filled with gravel and water you can hardly hear the tumblers running.
Besides, I do all of my work in my basement workshop, which is a long way from where my wife's reading chair.
Personally, I've never attempted electrolysis, maybe one day though.

Best of luck to you,
Dave

You could always restore the ax heads. Here is a guy who restored a meat clever.

Very interesting video HarleyMan.
I enjoyed watching how he made the wooden handle then refitting it to the blade.
Thanks very much for sharing it with us!
Dave

 

[A2coins]

Great post awesome job on those

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

Great post awesome job on those

Thanks very much my friend.
Dave