✅ SOLVED Cannonball info please!

[Old Dude]

I would love to be able to say I found this, but my brother in law gave it to me. His nephew has found four or five now at his worksite in Ky. There was a battle site several miles away, and I have heard stories that during the retreat, skirmishes happened just on the other side of the hilltop near this site. I have also heard that there was an ironworks site somewhere in the vicinity of the find. All the balls are the same size he found and according to my bath scale, it weighs 3.4 lbs. As you can see, it appears the casting marks have been ground away. Is this a CW era ball or some other time frame? Thanks for replies.

 

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[Old Dude]

I thought this forum had knowledgeable members?

 

[parsonwalker]

Old dude - Patience! Cannonball guy is your man. PM him. He will want dimensions though. Looks like a milling media ball to me, but I know squat. Don't think I've ever seen a cannonball with cast seams ground off, but likewise, why grind seams off a milling media ball?! That seems like wasted effort. Good luck - hope it's artillery!

 

[cw0909]

need exact measurements weights diameter
Cannon bore, shot, and shell diameters for smoothbore guns

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Cw0909 beat me to posting the link which gives the very-precise diameter and weight specifications of civil war (and some earlier) cannonballs.
www.civilwarartilelry.com/shottables.htm
That data, called the "Shot Tables," is from the US (and CSA) Ordnance Manual of 1861. You can check it for yourself to confirm what I tell you. You say your solid (not hollow) iron ball weighs 3.4 pounds. There is no match-up for it in the historical data in the Shot Tables, so your iron ball is not a cannonball, Grapeshot ball, and Canister-ammo ball.

Also, Parsonwalker is correct, no actual cannonballs had grinder-marks. That's a clear sign that an iron or steel ball is from the modern era.

 

[Old Dude]

Thanks to all for your replies and your information. Anyone need a paperweight?

 

[Ant]

Those don't look like grinder lines to me, it could be but they could have gotten there by throwing, skip shot, grinder, shot put, etc, just saying.

 

[Old Dude]

Those don't look like grinder lines to me, it could be but they could have gotten there by throwing, skip shot, grinder, shot put, etc, just saying.

The lines go around the entire middle though. Not sure that could happen accidentally. They almost look like strands of a wire cable impressed during molding.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

I think those are indeed grinder marks. Metal balls manufactured for "non-precision work" purposes (such as mill-balls and cement-truck-tank cleaner balls) tend to be crudely cast, coming out of the casting-mold with a prominent moldseam projecting from the ball's equator. The edges of the moldseam's "flashing" are often ragged and sharp, capable of causing injury, or at least, snags when the ball is in use. The cheapest (least-laborious) way to remove the projecting moldseam is to rotate the ball with its encircling seam pressed against a coarse-texture grinder. That produces the grinder marks seen on this ball.

 

[Ant]

Then they could be marks left from someone removing cast flashing.

 

[Ant]

JFI:
I didn't read CBG's thread before posting the above thread, .