Civil war spur from the mud

[FloodcityTom]

The last few days around my area saw some heavy rains, I've had my eye on a construction site this past week and decided to give it a try late Last Sunday evening. I was seeing bits of broken pottery & glass so I knew there had to be something good. Five minutes into the dig I hit a big button heavily encrusted with dirt and crud which I knew was likely a Union staff officers tunic button. I found some modern junk pull tabs, beer caps a few modern pennies then run across a Period harmonica reed, More Junk, then WHAM !!, the Noka simplex sounds off with a big signal, I was surprised to see a bent cavalry spur pop out of the mud. The eagle button still needs some work cleaning there is a tremendous amount of encrustation and I won't try to unbend the twisted spur side, too much chance of it breaking off.

 

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[Florida Finder]

The last few days around my area saw some heavy rains, I've had my eye on a construction site this past week and decided to give it a try late Last Sunday evening. I was seeing bits of broken pottery & glass so I knew there had to be something good. Five minutes into the dig I hit a big button heavily encrusted with dirt and crud which I knew was likely a Union staff officers tunic button. I found some modern junk pull tabs, beer caps a few modern pennies then run across a Period harmonica reed, More Junk, then WHAM !!, the Noka simplex sounds off with a big signal, I was surprised to see a bent cavalry spur pop out of the mud. The eagle button still needs some work cleaning there is a tremendous amount of encrustation and I won't try to unbend the twisted spur side, too much chance of it breaking off. View attachment 2046136

Awesome finds. Congratulations

 

[Digger RJ]

The last few days around my area saw some heavy rains, I've had my eye on a construction site this past week and decided to give it a try late Last Sunday evening. I was seeing bits of broken pottery & glass so I knew there had to be something good. Five minutes into the dig I hit a big button heavily encrusted with dirt and crud which I knew was likely a Union staff officers tunic button. I found some modern junk pull tabs, beer caps a few modern pennies then run across a Period harmonica reed, More Junk, then WHAM !!, the Noka simplex sounds off with a big signal, I was surprised to see a bent cavalry spur pop out of the mud. The eagle button still needs some work cleaning there is a tremendous amount of encrustation and I won't try to unbend the twisted spur side, too much chance of it breaking off. View attachment 2046136

Very Cool!!! Congrats !!!!

 

[Bamasteve]

Awesome spur, cool finds!

 

[BLK HOLE]

Very cool save! Congrats

 

[oldmxrat]

Very cool find, congrats!

 

[devldog]

Very nice Save of the Cavalry Spur. Well Done. Preserve it as is. Your right in not attempting to straighten it, and break it. It looks great as is. A nice piece of History.

 

[diggerdeeper]

Assuming your spur is a brass alloy, it COULD be straightened IF the metal is annealed first.
Brass works opposite of steel or iron in that if heated to a certain temperature and quenched in water, it will become soft rather than harder. Cartridge reloaders are familiar with annealing their brass cases so they stay pliable and not crack after extended use.
The only problem is, you will ruin the patina in the process and of course, there's always the risk of breakage anyway.
I'm just putting this out there for as a general FYI.
Great find BTW

 

[Gare]

Nice find for sure thanks for posting