a gun and trunk handle

[villagenut]

Found these two iron relics and had to spend some time decrusting them. I know for some, the cleaning of iron artifacts can be a real pain, but I have always liked giving them a go. You just never know what's hiding under it all till you peel off the extra baggage. The little pocket pistol had me excited as the shape seemed right, but then the cylinder showed its face and it was a stationary chamber....Noooooo, a cap gun. It was still a fun one to dig.... and uncover once it was uncovered. Not really sure what kind of caps it fired, it looks like a .22 casing would fit in the barrel.Seema a bit dangerous for a kid to have had if that's the case. Not one marking on it which I thought strange, but I know it is a Smith and Wesson grip design. Have seen several of these handles on here lately, probably from a steamer trunk ...or a strong box

 

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[ARC]

Here is an example... cool find.

 

[Msbeepbeep]

Awesome! I admire your cleaning ability!

With my luck I will find not an old rusty gun but a full functioning loaded one that I will then get to answer a lot of questions about to the police.

 

[Pointman]

That cap gun cleaned up really well. Did you just knock off the rust or use electrolysis?

 

[Loco-Digger]

Nice job cleaning them. You know what your doing, may hat;s off to ya

 

[CanadaGold]

Wow that cleaned up great what did you use ?

 

[villagenut]

I used my electrolysis setup which is best on heavier encrusted artifacts. It took about two weeks and a few water changes and several picking sessions where the chunks of rust fall off with little persuasion. I am now leaving them in distilled water for a leaching period, which will help remove the death dealing chlorides which has been absorbed into the iron. When I am satisfied with this step, I will coat with a protective concoction.

 

[CoinandRelicMan]

Wow don't think I would have been able to clean those up, thats some really bad encrustation. Was the cap gun actually made out of iron or some kind of pot metal ?

 

[villagenut]

Wow don't think I would have been able to clean those up, thats some really bad encrustation. Was the cap gun actually made out of iron or some kind of pot metal ?

Without doing some metallurgical test, I wouldn't know for certain. This could have been made with either type metal, but usually pot metal objects that I find do not clean well after this long in the ground, usually they deteriorate on their own. This little gun is highly magnetic, so it is doubtful that it is made up of alloys of different types. It is heavy and well built without a seam along the barrel leading me to think a cast iron piece...but then again these have been made using both metal types.

 

[RustyGold]

Awesome finds! Excellent job on the clean up!

 

[46Wheat]

Nice finds and love how it cleaned up

 

[villagenut]

Nice finds and love how it cleaned up

Not as good lookin as the one TNET Breezie found, hers even had a name given it, Sambo. Mine has absolutely nothing stamped on it.