OutdoorAdv
Bronze Member
- Apr 16, 2013
- 2,457
- 3,350
- 🥇 Banner finds
- 1
- Detector(s) used
-
XP Deus,
GPX 4500,
Equinox 800,
AT Max
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
After weeks of rain, I was dying to get out to sift. It seemed like bands of rain swept across the US every day for the last 2 weeks, so when the sun came out on Thurs, I was out the door. Sadly the soil was too wet and the grass waist high, so I just hunkered down in one small area to dig nails. Thurs was one of those hunts that started out amazing, with multiple bone pieces turning up early on, followed by a complete pontil bottle and the General Service button, which gave me the right attitude for digging nails for 5 hours. In all, on Thurs I dug exactly 100 nails and a few dozen pieces of other iron. On Saturday (yesterday) I got out for 8 hours and dug an equal number of nails along with 2 CW Excelsior buttons. Yesterday was a much slower hunt than thurs, but I was happy with the two NY buttons that turned up.
This bottle was a big deal for me. I'm not a bottle collector, hardly know a thing about them, but I think these hand made bottles are killer. I've been sifting this pit since last year and everything I find is pulverized. I'm lucky to find a piece of pottery or glass that is larger than an inch across. I still save it all and piece what I can back together for displaying. I have wanted a complete bottle so bad and its very discouraging to dig broken things for 100's of hours of sifting. So I got the antler knife out of the plug and after 5 min of removing nails with my pinpointer from the plug, my machine was telling me more nails were right to the left of it. So I cut a large half moon plug extension and when I flip back the sod, this bottle drops out the bottom. If I came in an inch on the size of my plug extension, I would have crushed this bottle. I sat there with a huge dumb smile for at least 5 minutes just staring at this bottle. It was so rewarding after digging so many really cool broken pieces, to finally get one of these really old blown pontil bottles.
This antler knife was found digging a large flat iron high tone with iron grunts... the hole turned out to contain all iron, but there was a piece of sheet metal, the knife blade and a hand full of nails. I dug the bone fork sides one plug before the antler knife. There was a nail in the plug that I was finding to remove with my pinpointer and the bone handles were an added bonus. The following plug I popped it open and saw the antler handle.... was so awesome... I took my time removing it since I didn't want to break off anything that was left of the iron part. I was unsure if it was a fork, knife or spoon when I first saw it and luckily there was enough of the knife blade left to tell what it was.
The progression of preservation as dug, washed, electrolysis, hot wax (iron) mineral oil (antler), and I had to epoxy the blade back into the handle. Turned out great.
Here are some of my favorite bone and wood handle utensils that have turned up here, sitting on a plate from here that I have been trying to reconstruct. All of these have been in past posts on here within the last year. Cool to think any of them could have been used together or by the same person and possibly eaten a meal on that very plate
Some nice rose heads from Thurs. The uncleaned one is from yesterday and I probably have even more since I haven't even sorted through my from that trip yet.
The Civil War General Service button has a perfect patina on it with a nice Waterbury backmark. Of all my GS buttons, this one has the best color and was very nice to add to my display. Yesterday my 4th and 5th NY Excelsior button turned up from this place. The first one yesterday was in nice condition, but the second one had old damage where the face was crushed in and the inside filled with dirt. So I saved the dirt from inside since I figured it might contain some of the front pieces. I was able to find 3 of the pieces and glue them back on. So while its in rough shape, its still better than a button with hardly any face.
This brick was a nice surprise in many ways. I'm always digging bricks here and usually leave them in the plug. After 100's of bricks, this was my first complete one... better yet, its in exterior corner brick from the chimney with the white wash paint still on it. Insane!! You can see the charring on it where it was on the inside of the chimney and where the other brick butted up to it. White wash paint is on the two outside ends of the brick.
All 5 of the NY buttons in the display now.
Unmasking new non-ferrous tones is a lot of work, but totally worth it. The surprises are few, but rewarding and in the process I get cool relics like the pieces of bone and rose head nails.
Thanks for reading and happy hunting.
This bottle was a big deal for me. I'm not a bottle collector, hardly know a thing about them, but I think these hand made bottles are killer. I've been sifting this pit since last year and everything I find is pulverized. I'm lucky to find a piece of pottery or glass that is larger than an inch across. I still save it all and piece what I can back together for displaying. I have wanted a complete bottle so bad and its very discouraging to dig broken things for 100's of hours of sifting. So I got the antler knife out of the plug and after 5 min of removing nails with my pinpointer from the plug, my machine was telling me more nails were right to the left of it. So I cut a large half moon plug extension and when I flip back the sod, this bottle drops out the bottom. If I came in an inch on the size of my plug extension, I would have crushed this bottle. I sat there with a huge dumb smile for at least 5 minutes just staring at this bottle. It was so rewarding after digging so many really cool broken pieces, to finally get one of these really old blown pontil bottles.
This antler knife was found digging a large flat iron high tone with iron grunts... the hole turned out to contain all iron, but there was a piece of sheet metal, the knife blade and a hand full of nails. I dug the bone fork sides one plug before the antler knife. There was a nail in the plug that I was finding to remove with my pinpointer and the bone handles were an added bonus. The following plug I popped it open and saw the antler handle.... was so awesome... I took my time removing it since I didn't want to break off anything that was left of the iron part. I was unsure if it was a fork, knife or spoon when I first saw it and luckily there was enough of the knife blade left to tell what it was.
The progression of preservation as dug, washed, electrolysis, hot wax (iron) mineral oil (antler), and I had to epoxy the blade back into the handle. Turned out great.
Here are some of my favorite bone and wood handle utensils that have turned up here, sitting on a plate from here that I have been trying to reconstruct. All of these have been in past posts on here within the last year. Cool to think any of them could have been used together or by the same person and possibly eaten a meal on that very plate
Some nice rose heads from Thurs. The uncleaned one is from yesterday and I probably have even more since I haven't even sorted through my from that trip yet.
The Civil War General Service button has a perfect patina on it with a nice Waterbury backmark. Of all my GS buttons, this one has the best color and was very nice to add to my display. Yesterday my 4th and 5th NY Excelsior button turned up from this place. The first one yesterday was in nice condition, but the second one had old damage where the face was crushed in and the inside filled with dirt. So I saved the dirt from inside since I figured it might contain some of the front pieces. I was able to find 3 of the pieces and glue them back on. So while its in rough shape, its still better than a button with hardly any face.
This brick was a nice surprise in many ways. I'm always digging bricks here and usually leave them in the plug. After 100's of bricks, this was my first complete one... better yet, its in exterior corner brick from the chimney with the white wash paint still on it. Insane!! You can see the charring on it where it was on the inside of the chimney and where the other brick butted up to it. White wash paint is on the two outside ends of the brick.
All 5 of the NY buttons in the display now.
Unmasking new non-ferrous tones is a lot of work, but totally worth it. The surprises are few, but rewarding and in the process I get cool relics like the pieces of bone and rose head nails.
Thanks for reading and happy hunting.
Upvote
49
I really appreciate all the responses. Items that were used daily, such as the antler knife and the other utiensils from this pit are some of my favorite relics. I have been running out of room since I built the case for this site last summer... it is a good problem to have 
. Thank you all again.
