Any way to date iron spoon handle

[Mark1985]

 

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[Bryanhashemi]

try electrolysis. only thing i can think of

 

[Mark1985]

Speaking of that has anyone tryed that rust soak from wd-40 ?

 

[Bryanhashemi]

never heard of it. ill look it up

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

When you sent me a Private Message and I suggested you post photos of it, I was hoping the handle would have a "distinctive" shape which would enable us to date it. Unfortunately, its shape is very generic/plain, so it's no help for time-dating. All I can tell you is, its thin-ness indicates it is machine-stamped iron sheetmetal, and that kind of eating utensil was manufactured as a much-cheaper alternative to non-iron ones, from the mid-1800s into the early 20th-Century. The iron sheetmetal was plated with tin to prevent rusting, but the tinplating wore off after a few years of use, resulting in rust after you washed the eating-utensil. Thus, these cheap iron sheetmetal ones fell out of popularity in the early-1900s as more and more Americans became prosperous enough to afford non-iron ones.

Because these thin stamped sheet-iron ones do date back to the mid-1800s, some have been found in civil war camps. Of course that doesn't mean ALL of them we dig are civil war era. (I deeply dislike seeing this type always advertized as "civil war relics" on Ebay.) But if you found yours in an "isolated" civil war camp, nowhere near an old house-site, it is probably from the civil war era. I should mention that neither the US nor CS Army issued eating-utensils to the soldiers. They had to provide their own. http://www.history.army.mil/html/museums/messkits/Field_Mess_Gear%28upd_Jul09%29.pdf

 

[DCMatt]

I once dated a girl who was as dumb as a spoon handle. It was easy. I just asked her.

Incidentally, she was MUCH softer than iron.

DCMatt

 

[kuger]

I once dated a girl who was as dumb as a spoon handle. It was easy. I just asked her.

Incidentally, she was MUCH softer than iron.

DCMatt

Did you "spoon",with her?

 

[Mark1985]

Lol were both waiting to hear about that one maybe he forked her

 

[HutSiteDigger]

Mark I think you dug that in near the same area you been digging those CW relics .. I would throw this in the CW collection. This could be a spoon or a fork and all the spoons and forks I dug in CW camps in Spotsylvania that look like yours with fork or spoon end missing come out looking like that I bet you could snap that fork without any muscle looks to be 150 years old! Hope you pull out some more awesome relics in you're spots let us know how you do! I will be up in Spotsy this weekend hopefully digging out a Confederate trash pit so lets try and pull some neat artifacts outta the ground!

 

[Mark1985]

Haha I got to get together with you sometime hut you know your stuff about Spotsylvania

 

[DCMatt]

Haha I got to get together with you sometime hut you know your stuff about Spotsylvania

I'll be at Chancellorsville May 3 - 5 for the 150th reenactment. Come by the camp and I'll put a rifle in your hand and a kepi on your head.

And just FYI... Me and the spoon handle girl did ALL the utensils...


DCMatt
13th Virginia Infantry, Co. I