The whetstone everyone wants to find! And some other stuff

[Old Pueblo]

Hello everyone, its been a while but Im back now. Ive been very busy but managed to get out and do some more hunting, and I will be posting some of my recent finds and questions about them over the next few days.! I cant remember if there is a place to post your "recent finds", instead of just "todays find", so Im going to post this here.

Anyway, I was out date nail hunting, a few weeks ago, checking out this old corral made of railroad ties a buddy told me about, kind of hidden back there in the desert away from the road, and judging by the looks of the place, this area hasnt seen much use in the past 50 to 75 years. Next to this corral is an old shed, with an awning coming off the side, and underneath there was a bucket of old rusty horseshoes laying on its side and spilling out, about 10 pieces of Indian pottery (mostly plain brown stuff but a few decorated/corrugated pieces can be seen in my photos), some old broken glass and a few other random things scattered about, such as the lid to an old pickle bottle (Not seen in photos) and a modern electrical insulator or two. Anyway, scattered among all that was this whetstone, with all these old dates and initials.

I cant quite tell what the first initials are next to the 1829 date, maybe someone here can make it out? It looks like it says "F. G.", or maybe the "G" is actually a "Q", as my sister suggested? The other sides say "E. P. Q 1866" and "G. L. Q. 1885", which to me could be an indication that this piece was passed down through a family.

Last but not least are 3 new date nails, including a very nice square "1917" diamond head type nail from a telephone or possibly telegraph pole used in the corral, a very nice and unusually short 1931, and the elusive large 1933. I also found a few of the more common nails from the 1920s, and 1930s, not seen here.

 

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[kingskid1611]

That is some great stuff. Congrats!!!

 

[Old Pueblo]

Thank you. Is that a peace medal Im looking at?

 

[Old Pueblo]

Heres the rest of my nails, the majority on the left are from the railroad, the smaller group on the right came from telephone/telegraph poles. I found all of these except for a few of the telephone pole nails on the right, which were given to me.

 

[kingskid1611]

Thank you. Is that a peace medal Im looking at?

That I don't know. I don't really know anything about it. I was unaware that nails had numbers on them so that is really cool. Do they number them for any particular reason?

 

[Old Pueblo]

That I don't know. I don't really know anything about it. I was unaware that nails had numbers on them so that is really cool. Do they number them for any particular reason?

I saw the medal and saw that you are in Oklahoma and it reminded me of the old peace medals the US government used to give to Indian chiefs, when they'd sign a peace treaty. Ive heard of people finding them before, and not all of them are accounted for if I remember correctly. Anyway, these nails were used for dating railroad ties (the wooden beams you see between the rails, in old railroads) and other lumber to keep track of their age. Wooden parts like railroad ties, bridge timbers and telephone poles deteriorate over time and have to be replaced every now and then, so the nail tells you when a tie was made. Old corrals are a good place to find them because ranchers would reuse old railroad ties in their corrals, especially in the desert or the prairie where wood is harder to come by. The railroad companies replaced ties all the time and ranchers and farmers were free to come take them, which is why you see so many old RR ties being used in corrals and fences. Date nails from the railroad can be found all over the country so the next time you see an old corral on the side of the road, stop and you might find one. I mostly find nails with dates in the 1920s and 1930s, around here.

 

[Worm-Slicer]

That's a nice whetstone, especially with all the dates and initials scratched into it. I've only found one whetstone and that was while metal detecting. Mine came out of a Confederate trash pit, but no dates or initials on mine. I love stuff like that.

 

[RVRoamer73]

Very interesting finds. I like the old nails, you have one heck of a collection of them. So much History there, glad you are saving so much of it. Nice work and glad to see your posts again.

 

[The Aluminum Monster]

I absolutely love your collection. I didn't know about these until I started seeing you post them. Gorgeous and a neat piece of history.

 

[gunsil]

I don't think that is a whetstone. A whetstone would be too hard to scratch dates and letters into unless one had some tungsten carbide tools which are modern.

 

[3cylbill]

the thin black stones look more like soapstone. they used that to keep warm as it hold the heat for hours. they would set them on the stove and heat them up and put them under there feet in buckboards and in bed with them, and they are very heavy..

 

[gunsil]

That is exactly what I was thinking, bedwarmers of soapstone. There is no size reference though making it hard to tell what it was, it looks small for a bedwarmer or a holystone.

 

[Inspector]

Nice stone & awesome nail collection, congrats on the saves

 

[Jose The Goon]

Congrats on your cool finds & thank you for your VERY informative posts. Cheers !

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Awesome relics, congrats!

 

[basque-man]

That is so cool. We haven't seen date nails in our area now for some time. Most of the tracks and poles are long gone

 

[Old Pueblo]

Interesting. Im not very familiar with this kind of find, and I assumed its a whetstone because of the concavity in the top of it. Its not perfectly flat but bows in toward the middle from both ends, which to me looks like ir could be wear from running a knife across it for many years. But as I said, Im not an expert.

 

[Old Pueblo]

That is so cool. We haven't seen date nails in our area now for some time. Most of the tracks and poles are long gone

Same here in Arizona, most of the old railroads are long gone, but the countryside is still full of old corrals and fencelines made of these old ties, so thats where I like to search.

 

[Old Pueblo]

Thats very interesting and honestly it never came to mind, although I have heard of people using stones to stay warm, so Im going to look it up, and see what I see. And thanks to you and everyone else for you feedback.

 

[Old Pueblo]

I was just looking up soapstones for heating, but all of them seem a little rougher (not as smooth) as my whetstone is and they are also much bigger. Big enough to put under your feet. This one is only about 2 inches wide and about 4 inches long. And as you may be able to see in my photos, kind of bows in toward the middle, like you see on these other two whetstones. I know its hard to see in my photos, but if you run your hand across the top you can definitely feel where it is thinner in the middle.



My whetstone



A couple of examples of old, well used whetstones