✅ SOLVED Another iron-rock mystery

[Dougie Webb]

I posted this yesterday in the rocks/gems forum but crickets so far - thought I'd see if y'all can come up with something...

Came across this in the woods near my house in Stone Mountain. Nothing remarkable about the location, but have never seen anything like it here. It's very dense/heavy, even a little more so than what I would expect from iron. It attracts a magnet, but not particularly strongly given its size.

Since my detector identified it primarily as iron, and it leaves a brownish streak, my assumption is hematite. But I can't seem to find any images of hematite that look like this. It has inclusions (not sure if this is the right use of that word) of what are obviously other types of rocks. I've put a close up of some of those.

When I discriminate out iron on my detector, I readily get numbers that are associated with nickels and aluminum.

The color below is a little lighter than the actual, as I did some editing to bring out the details.

Thanks in advance!





Close-up of one of the "inclusions" - it's significantly lighter than the rest of the rock, just didn't come across well here.



More detail...

 

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[ticndig]

beat it with a hammer to see if it is truly stone . maybe just encrusted bit of iron.
as far as the # read out on the machine , that is seldom accurate , hunt by tones not numbers and you will dig more treasure.

 

[Dougie Webb]

beat it with a hammer to see if it is truly stone . maybe just encrusted bit of iron.
as far as the # read out on the machine , that is seldom accurate , hunt by tones not numbers and you will dig more treasure.

Good idea - may well just be a bunch of junk. When you say "hunt by tone" do you mean listen to the strength of the tone/signal?

 

[GoldieLocks]

Could it be that dino poop shape replaced where nature fills the shap in over millions of years?

 

[ticndig]

Good idea - may well just be a bunch of junk. When you say "hunt by tone" do you mean listen to the strength of the tone/signal?

I dig all clear repeatable solid tones , make an x over the target with your coil , if it sounds the same solid ,not broken tones both ways I dig.

 

[Dougie Webb]

I dig all clear repeatable solid tones , make an x over the target with your coil , if it sounds the same solid ,not broken tones both ways I dig.

Thanks for the tip! I think I need to do some research on detecting techniques...I've just been kinda shooting in the dark so far.

 

[ticndig]

put your machine model in the search bar on youtube ,there's bound to be someone with tips for best use.

 

[Dougie Webb]

beat it with a hammer to see if it is truly stone . maybe just encrusted bit of iron.
as far as the # read out on the machine , that is seldom accurate , hunt by tones not numbers and you will dig more treasure.

TIC, you nailed it. Knocked the sh*t out of it with the BFH and then put the result in the tumbler for a couple of hours and this was the result. Still don't know what it is, but it's clearly something manmade.

 

[ticndig]

it's a hammer.

 

[Dougie Webb]

it's a hammer.

It's teeny though, only two inches long. But is sure does look like it has a spot in the middle for something to attach to

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Could be a tack-hammer or a toy hammer. Or even a glazer's hammer (used to put little metal triangles in wood frames to hold glass in place before the putty was applied).

Simpler times in the 1880's

 

[metaldiggr]

I found a small pot-metal hammer a few weeks ago in a 1760 house yard. It was some kind of candy breaking tool from the 40's.

 

[Dougie Webb]

Could be a tack-hammer or a toy hammer. Or even a glazer's hammer (used to put little metal triangles in wood frames to hold glass in place before the putty was applied).

Simpler times in the 1880's

Wow - awesome! Thanks!

 

[Dougie Webb]

I found a small pot-metal hammer a few weeks ago in a 1760 house yard. It was some kind of candy breaking tool from the 40's.

That's a great find! This hunk of metal I have sure fits that profile...I mean, the hole through it is too symmetrical not to have been an implement/tool of some kind...

 

[Dougie Webb]

Found this on eBay....I think the mystery is solved. You guys rock! Pun intended.

 

[Dougie Webb]

Anyone wanna take a stab at its age? With all that "rock" around it, and its primitive appearance...one would think early 1900's There were definitely houses on this property as earlier as that...if not before.