Found on shores of lake michigan

[love2velo]

I found this a couple weeks back and am a bit stumped. At first, I thought it was a corroded shipwreck piece. But after a closer look, I noticed that it has the look of a man made/formed conglomerate with a significant amount of iron in it. The density is 3.66 and it has a extremely high attraction to magnet.

While it could be a formed piece of slag, I also have heard that Native American Indians working with meteorites and hematite. This looks like it could be some sort of religious icon but that is just a guess too.

 

[GatorBoy]

Looks like an old piece of iron or steel that's been in the water for quite a while

 

[love2velo]

That was my original thought, but started to question that with all the concretion material that appears to be in the matrix. Any guess how long it would take to get like this?

 

[GatorBoy]

When that type of metal starts to break down it acts like a magnet to everything around it..I've seen things from a pair of pliers just a few years old look like that all the way to artifacts hundreds of years old it's really hard to tell

 

[GatorBoy]

 

[GatorBoy]

 

[monsterrack]

As Gator stated iron does some wild things in water, you have something inside of what you found, you just need to get to it by removing all the outside junk.

 

[GatorBoy]

Drop it in some white vinegar and keep checking it every day rubbing off what loosens up it will clean it up eventually.
Unless there was some real context that makes you believe it's from a certain shipwreck 99% of these EO's (encrusted objects) are junk... at least that's my experience

 

[love2velo]

great info...thanks to everyone!!

 

[love2velo]

How long does it need to soak?....been 2 days and nothing has come off -

Drop it in some white vinegar and keep checking it every day rubbing off what loosens up it will clean it up eventually.
Unless there was some real context that makes you believe it's from a certain shipwreck 99% of these EO's (encrusted objects) are junk... at least that's my experience

 

[GatorBoy]

Could be a week...month...ect...

 

[love2velo]

I decided to sand down the tip and thought I would share - wild the amount of build up -

 

[GatorBoy]

As stable as the metal looks you could probably just crack and chip off the crust.
Might be a padlock or something