What is this thing?

[Tsondru]

I am a newbie on my second day of detecting and my first post -

Did not mean to lock people out of answering - thanks for all those who looked and hopefully will look again

I came across this in a meadow that had was a redwood forest but had been clearcut back in the 1850s. After that it was used to graze cattle up until the 1940s.

It is clearly a metal. It is about 3 feet long. The bar bars are about 3 inches wide and a half an inch thick. There is a piece that goes off 90 degrees from the middle of the bar, running about a foot toward the top of the photo, which is buried in the ground still. It appears to have a backing to it that is about 6 inches from the front of it. The backing is seen vaguely on the right side but not on the left side as you look at the picture.

Any ideas would be appreciated - Thank you for your help

[Skywola]

The small piece is part of a wood clamp. You will have to dig the larger piece out, it may be a larger wood clam, but who knows when you cannot see all of it.

[Tsondru]

You are right, it does appear to be a wood clamp but what would a wood clamp be doing on a rectangular piece of metal like that? Could it be part of an old woodworking machine?

[deepskyal]

Curious. Hope you dig the rest to see the whole thing.

I agree it "looks" like a wood clamp, but the way it's mounted doesn't seem to allow any screw mechanism to thread up through it. I think the corners of the object are interesting the way they're rounded with a gro0ved 45 degree angle in them. Almost like this section might sit inside another with the rounded corners acting as the feet to suspend it.

Just guessing but maybe that vise is actually a gas fitting for heating something Sure looks familiar...just can't put my finger on it.

Al

[nsdq]

paul bunions belt buckle ?

[Tsondru]

Thanks for the suggestions, Deepsky - what you say makes sense as well.

I will see if I can get permission to dig more of it out of the ground. It sure seems as big as Paul Bunyon's belt buckle, that's for sure

I'll let you know if I can get more of it dug.

Thanks