Maine coast vintage bronze harpoon tip

[How Lucky]

Found this along the Maine coast. A vintage bronze harpoon tip for whaling, tuna and other large fish and animals. It has a very thick oxidation coating all over it. Don't know if I should clean it or not. Looks okay as is. Would love to know how this thing made its way to being on that beach. Nice day to be on the beach anyway!

 

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[Ia.FurTrade]

I love it!!! PLEASE do not clean it further!
Great piece of history!!

Iowa Dale

 

[BigWaveDave]

That’s fantastic.

 

[adit]

Outstanding find !
Very interesting .

 

[Johncoho]

That is a really nice find. No cleaning is needed.

 

[Squirrel322]

THAR SHE BLOWS!!!!

Thats a very cool find! Great display piece!

 

[CaptnJohn]

Great find!!!!!!!

 

[jgleaves]

could have been in fish or mammal that got away but died, then washed up, decomposed, and tip was just waiting for you to come along

 

[tinpan]

Hi , Very interesting find .I only ever seen solid hand forged and tempered iron ones with a long shaft molded as one piece. TP

 

[xcopperstax]

Amazing find and especially cool that it's from New England! The new Bedford whaling museum in Massachusetts may be able to help identify or date it.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Beautiful piece of history, leave as it is for now!

 

[bologna321]

Amazing relic, I'd display that for sure

 

[gunsil]

Nice lilly, but it was not meant for whales ever. It is a giant bluefin tuna and swordfish harpoon tip and not really very old. You can walk into any commercial fishermans' supply store and buy an identical one today. I have had and used these, made some belt buckles out of them too. (Lilly is the term guys who throw harpoons call these things). Very cool to find one on a beach. Whale harpoon heads had the shank attached to them and were made from steel and are MUCH larger. How Lucky, if you go down to the commercial docks in season you will see sword and bluefin tuna fishermen using the same ones. If any of you watch "Wicked Tuna" you will also see the same harpoon heads in use.

 

[Rookster]

Thanks for sharing. My first to see on the forum. Congratulations.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

Very cool.

 

[Relicific]

Cool find

 

[ARC]

Missing the ring.

I also have one missing the ring.

 

[Joe-Dirt]

I wouldn’t clean it, that green patina is really nice, great job!!!

 

[A2coins]

I heard that Balloon pop. cool find either way

 

[Oddjob]

I am normally one of those people that would say clean it, but seriously it looks great the way it is. at best I might soak it in water for about 2 days, but no scrubbing, just enough to get the rest of the dirt out of it.