Finds sans detector

[heepiepow]

Hi! I don't own a detector but have rented one twice, and found many coins and tokens (along with my mom, and sister, and nephews who shared the time).

Today though my mom clued me in onto gopher holes, and how gophers sometimes dig up ancient coins and kick it out in the open. Well, I didn't have a detector but had a screen so on my way back from McDonalds for McRibs walked the train tracks, the sides of which have many gopher holes. Tried screening at random, but my two big finds were, well, big. First, an old circular saw blade:

Second, an old wrench:

Both are terribly rusted with no marks to identify them. But both were sitting around waiting to be picked up!

But there were tons of other iron bits I didn't take, so I really doubt our basic rented detector could discern between that iron and any coins that may lay around. Maybe I'll wait until we buy a cutting-edge detector until I return to the sites.

Not much impressive here, but I'm still excited! I found artifacts! (that's what mom and I call anything we bring up, even if its bottlecaps, lol)

 

[heepiepow]

oops, those images are really big. I'll try to make them a smaller size

 

[HISPAN]

welcome to the t.net forum!
interesting iron finds.... congrats !

 

[heepiepow]

welcome to the t.net forum!
interesting iron finds.... congrats !

Thanks! Even though I'm a neophyte I'm amazed at the stuff of past people that's just about everywhere we walk! I just wish modern folks hadn't paved everything with concrete, because there are probably great things under streets and sidewalks. Does anyone here order a jackhammer along with thier MD? :P

Oh, forgot to add--I made sure to not disturb or alter the gopher holes, or the general way the gophers had kicked out the detritus, I screened it right back on to maintain their digs. No artifact is worth messing up the gophers' lives!

 

[NHBandit]

If the wrench was found along the tracks it could have railroad markings on it and if so it may be worth a few bucks. Cleaning it up by electrolisis or my preferred method of soaking in a molasses & water mix, will remove the rust so you can have a look. I have one in my collection marked C. M. & L. RR which stands for Concord, Manchester (NH) & Lawrence (MA) railroad and it's worth quite a bit to a collector of railroad stuff. Yours has the look of some of the large crudely made wrenches the railroads used back in the day. Here's mine for comparison.

 

[heepiepow]

Thanks NHBandit! My wrench is REALLY corroded though. Don't think any of the original surface still exists, there are several layers of rust, and if I kept picking them off I'd probably pick all the way through, until it broke in two!

On the way back I passed a mobile snap-on vendor to a local auto shop, and considered asking him "hey, snap-ons are guaranteed for life, so please replace this wrench! I promise it was once a snap-on!"

Love the White Mountains btw, gorgeous place to hike!

I have some iron that could be cleaned to good effect though, but I'm scared electrolysis would electrocute me to death. Do you have a link to your molasses alternative?

Happy hunting!

 

[NHBandit]

no link needed. pour a jar of Grandmas molasses (or any brand you can find) available at any grocery store into a 5 gallon bucket of warm water. More molasses will work faster and will not hurt steel or iron. It will not work on other metals from what I've been told and it will eat aluminum. Soak for 3-4 days outdoors (it stinks) and keep it covered. really rusty stuff may take longer. You can't leave it in too long since it does not affect ferrous metal. I use it all the time to restore old railroad lanterns that are tin plated and it dosn't affect the plating either. Here are some that were completely covered with surface rust when I got them. Soaked for 4 days & then lightly scrubbed with 000 steel wool. Keep in mind if there is pitting like with your wrench you will end up with rust free pitted metal. It's not magic..

 

[heepiepow]

Nice! Very nice lanterns too. Thanks for the tips