I have found some really cool things before but I keep finding these things. Look like keyholes. Here are the clues. One , I am in a very old bayou, plenty of steamboats, pre and post civil war. Two, they built boats, including steamboats where I fish. Three, there an old wooden bridge burned and another replaced. There is also a railroad just after civil war but upstream by about 50-75 yards. It's not a big item but I would like to figure it out.
I see a type of these on old wagons, wooden grist mills, and other wooden machinery. They are placed under the head of a bolt to spread the force on the wood like a washer?
I was going to go with weights, not necessarily scale weights. You would use the slot for hanging them on something. The look kind of like the weights that are used in tractor pulling.
Good responses. I'm leaning to washers. But remember, I also found in the last 3 weeks, 4 cotton bale hooks in same area used to load cotton bales on small steamboats.
Update on an old post. A friend sent very old pic of cotton bales on a boat. These were clips to attach with a rope bales to each other. There is actually a smaller piece broken off hence the reason I found them in the bayou.