I wonder what this is?

[Beeps in my sleep]

I was out at a friends house in a small town called Mainsville PA near Shippensburg. It is a new house however the area used to be all woods before this house was built only a year or 2 ago. I dug this and almost pitched it. However it keeps me wondering what it is. It doesn't appear to be a chain link and it is magnetic. That town did have some historical significance in the past but I am not holding my breath on this being historical. Any Idea's what this may be part of? It is solid and has some weight to it as well. Even though its probably nothing, I hate not knowing what something is and it bugs me. Thanks guys!

 

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[Rusted_Iron]

Save that. Early hand-wrought chain links were often irregular, just like the one you found.

Edit: Meant to include mention of the fact that yours shows signs of heavy strain, possibly from pulling out a stump. Notice the indentation and the elongation. The neighboring links probably broke from the strain. This happened with a lot of early chains.

 

[Beeps in my sleep]

Thanks Rusted Iron! I know there is no way of dating this but what would be your guess of time period it came from?

 

[Rusted_Iron]

Probably 1700's to about 1830, although hand wrought links were being made in some rural areas all the way up to about 1900-1910. That one looks earlier, but I wouldn't be able to tell unless you got the rust off it.

Another reason for finding an isolated link could be that it was used for connecting wagons or logging cars or something like that, but that one is not really big enough for those uses.

 

[Beeps in my sleep]

I will use electrolysis on it and clean it up for a better picture for you. Sorry I PM'd you the same question because I was curious. Many thanks!

 

[blademaker]

whatever that link was from it pulled weight for a good while judging by the worn out spot. I have a large link that I found that is ovea 1/2" thick anb just about worn through on two spots, makes you think about what typ of work these links were doing.

NIce find!

 

[BosnMate]

The link was probably on traces (horse harness) and hauled heavy loads, yarding logs or even pulling farm equipment over time will cause that type of wear. Just a guess on my part though, kind of hard to get history out of one link. Due to the wear on each end of the link, I agree that it's probably a chain link, but let me give you something to think about.
Here is a picture of a flint and steel. Not all flint strikers were links, but some were, and now you have something else to think about.
The photo is a flint striker with a piece of flint for striking a fire.

 

[Beeps in my sleep]

BosnMate you never cease to amaze me. Stop making me think it hurts!!! lol. Thanks man! HH