DownNDirty
Bronze Member
Last Saturday I took Jon (VMI Digger) to my favorite colonial site for some sifting and detecting. Most of you have already seen his post about the FANTASTIC 30th Regiment of Foot button that he found while detecting the site. What he didn't tell you (because he's such a nice guy lol) is that he found the button about 2 inches deep at a spot that I had sifted last winter. 
Apparently it either slipped through the screen or was covered in dirt and I didn't think it was anything worth looking at (that's my story and I'm sticking with it 
). But seriously I was really glad that he found it and I got a kick out of his reaction-I think his voice went up about two octaves! 
Anyhow, I didn't find anything nearly as awesome as Jon's button (that would have been really hard to do) but I did end up with a couple of decent finds. The sifter turned up another two-tined fork, the third from this site.
Here it is with the two I found previously
About every third sift I ran the magnet through the sift pile to remove nails then swung the coil over the dirt. On one of those passes I picked up a strong upper 40s signal and pinpointed this very interesting button
It's a small (14mm) two-piece button with a drilled shank. The front is pewter and the back piece is tombac. It has a very elaborate design on the front with four fleur-de-lises, a double rope design and the letter "L" on the front. It's a civilian button made in the 18th century (thanks Crusader for the id).
The sifter also turned up an iron shoe buckle chape
Here it is after careful electrolysis and preservation with a coat of Briwax
Also, as I was making one of many rounds with the magnet it picked up a very unusual hand-made screw. The shaft is forged iron and the head is brass. It obviously held down some sort of brass ornamentation; my guess is that it came from a musket. Any ideas?
Here are my finds from eight hours of digging and sifting. Like I said it's not a lot but was still worth the effort and we had a fun day.
Apparently it either slipped through the screen or was covered in dirt and I didn't think it was anything worth looking at (that's my story and I'm sticking with it ). But seriously I was really glad that he found it and I got a kick out of his reaction-I think his voice went up about two octaves! Anyhow, I didn't find anything nearly as awesome as Jon's button (that would have been really hard to do) but I did end up with a couple of decent finds. The sifter turned up another two-tined fork, the third from this site.
Here it is with the two I found previously
About every third sift I ran the magnet through the sift pile to remove nails then swung the coil over the dirt. On one of those passes I picked up a strong upper 40s signal and pinpointed this very interesting button
It's a small (14mm) two-piece button with a drilled shank. The front is pewter and the back piece is tombac. It has a very elaborate design on the front with four fleur-de-lises, a double rope design and the letter "L" on the front. It's a civilian button made in the 18th century (thanks Crusader for the id).
The sifter also turned up an iron shoe buckle chape
Here it is after careful electrolysis and preservation with a coat of Briwax
Also, as I was making one of many rounds with the magnet it picked up a very unusual hand-made screw. The shaft is forged iron and the head is brass. It obviously held down some sort of brass ornamentation; my guess is that it came from a musket. Any ideas?
Here are my finds from eight hours of digging and sifting. Like I said it's not a lot but was still worth the effort and we had a fun day.
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. I really like the tombac backed button with the drilled shank. Great post Glenn! Looking forward to the next one.
