Buckle help

[baspinall]

Ok, what is this beast. It looks like a shoe buckle but is pretty big. Belt? Has the curve to it and it's brass, I think ...

 

[Don in SJ]

Yes, you found a nice shoe buckle frame, plain type, last half of 18th century is when it was commonly used. Complete frames are always a nice find.

Don

 

[Woodland Detectors]

Nice! sweet button too!

 

[Don in SJ]

Yes, the button matches the time frame of the buckle, looks like a possible Tombac type. That should clean up nicely, the button that is..

Don

 

[johnnyi]

No surprise that Don, who's dug many of these, would I.d. the period correctly. Something to remember about these buckles is that the size of the buckles grew larger in size as the 18th century came to an end, and were sometimes as big as 90mm after 1770.

 

[baspinall]

Cool, thanks everyone. Makes sense, a buddy and me have turned up some 1770's coppers in this area. One ?, how would you go about cleaning up the button? I am familiar with coins but not buttons.

 

[Don in SJ]

Since it might be a Tombac type or other white metal button, hot peroxide soaking for ten minutes or so and then use a wet q-tip of peroxide and start rubbing the crud off, or even toothbrush it. Should come out looking metalic like, if tombac.

http://www.chippewanaturecenter.com/Oxbow/tombac buttons.htm

Don

 

[Iron Patch]

No surprise that Don, who's dug many of these, would I.d. the period correctly. Something to remember about these buckles is that the size of the buckles grew larger in size as the 18th century came to an end, and were sometimes as big as 90mm after 1770.

It's really strange we don't find many here. The two of us have been hunting over nine years together and I think I have one intact shoe buckle and my friend has never dug one. Even a large frame would be very uncommon to dig here, so much so that even though I don't look at it as something really special I can still remember the exact circumstances of digging one about 7 years ago. Since I started detecting I've probably dug 5000-6000 flat buttons but probably only 6 early large buckles/buckle frames.

 

[johnnyi]

Iron patch, I'm assuming Connecticut? Considering the phenomenally huge number of flat button you've found (wow!), that is strange indeed. You've found four times the number of buttons I have, but the average for me in Pa. and N.J. (can't speak for Don) has been about one shoe buckle (broken or whole) for every thirty buttons found. It may be that you are hunting more sites right on the cusp (1790's) when the shoe buckle was getting phased out?

 

[Iron Patch]

Iron patch, I'm assuming Connecticut? Considering the phenomenally huge number of flat button you've found (wow!), that is strange indeed. You've found four times the number of buttons I have, but the average for me in Pa. and N.J. (can't speak for Don) has been about one shoe buckle (broken or whole) for every thirty buttons found. It may be that you are hunting more sites right on the cusp (1790's) when the shoe buckle was getting phased out?

I'm a bit east of CT but yes, a good many of my sites would date into the 1800s. But I do have many finds dating pre 1800, just a serious lack of buckles. My intact buckle is French, never dug a complete Brit. one. It's all ploughed fields I detect so that could explain damage, but not so few frames.

 

[johnnyi]

Yes, that must be it. I've never found a shoe buckle in a plowed field either, despite searching fields for years. They've always been around the house site itself. I guess they wore the boots in the fields.

 

[Iron Patch]

Yes, that must be it. I've never found a shoe buckle in a plowed field either, despite searching fields for years. They've always been around the house site itself. I guess they wore the boots in the fields.

Almost all the fields I hunt have no house, not even a sign anything was there other than the metal, glass & bone in the ground.

 

[Don in SJ]

IP is so far "East" that they probably wore muckluks instead of shoes with buckles!

I am sure just about all if not all of my shoe and knee buckles are from close to the homestead, however, a lot of the woods I hunt were fields back in the 1700's and early 1800s.

Don

 

[Iron Patch]

IP is so far "East" that they probably wore muckluks instead of shoes with buckles!

I am sure just about all if not all of my shoe and knee buckles are from close to the homestead, however, a lot of the woods I hunt were fields back in the 1700's and early 1800s.

Don

Well I can't get any closer, I'm hunting right on the spot of the house!

East, but not "far east," thank God, that's for guys packing more than muckluks!