surprise

I found this buckle piece in a field in Luxembourg. Most of the stuff I've found in this area dates to around 1650-1960. Its made of either copper or bronze. I believe it to be medieval, more specifically from 1250-1350 according to this website...

So, funny thing happened to me this weekend. Collected some magnetite from a backyard stream for my first go at smelting iron. (Just built my first forced air propane crucible furnace.) Used a magnate to pull the magnetite from the stream bed clay. There I was Saturday grinding up a couple of...