Possible Rapier or Dagger

[Bottlemanstx]

Hello Everyone,

I think I may found a Rapier or dagger on Sunday morning. I decided to test another site this morning and after a few hours of pennies, nails, fishing hooks, lures and one 10K gold ring, there was that undeniable beep in my headphones. I new the target was going to be deep and so I prepared myself for a few calculated cuss words while attempting to dig this out. After 2-3' of digging with the water coming in every so often I pulled up what I think to be a rapier/dagger? The handle part appears to have grooves for grip and where the conglomeration of sand, shells and lord knows what else there does appear to be some solid metal in this area. Any suggestions or possible theories as to what this may be would be great.

Thanks

 

[Trond]

Very interesting find.

 

[Urban Grund]

Super nice find!

 

[DaChief]

Good deal on the Mark II. I ran into two older guys in Clearwater that were on Mel Fishers team that hunted for the Atocha. They were on vacation and having a blast. They were both hunting with the lates Mark II and blowing us all out of the water. There were at least 7 other hunters in the water that morning and these guys were finding the gold. I saw two pieces one of them had and they were really nice.

Good luck on preserving and getting the positive ID on your find!

 

[Bottlemanstx]

Hello,
After returning home from vacation I made the trip to Sebastian in hopes of finding any information on my find. Well first lets start by saying that the gentleman helping me was very friendly, knowledgeable and humble. After a brief walk through of the museum and stopping at there sword display he mentioned this piece if in fact was a weapon, it may have been used by the Pikes Man. Pikes Man were the front line men and there weapontry was not as elaborate as the officers or the like. He also mentioned that due to this piece being found in the sand it has actually preserved it better than if it had been in the ocean for several years.

Now we are not positive that this is a weapon of any sort but hopefully after Xraying it, there will be a clearer picture of what lays beneath the conglomeration. I should hopefully have some answers sometime by end of the month if not early January. So long for now and hopefully I will find more artifacts to post.

 

[ivan salis]

if I found that blade I would be so fired up that they would hear the whoop five miles away -- --pike men were basically foot soldiersthat carried a spear type looking weapon--- a pike was a weapon that had a long sharp bladed type tip with a ax type blade along the side of a long spear type shaft and was used in a thrusting or slashing type of attack --- the blade you have would have been "his back up weapon" for use if the "attackers" got inside the swing radius of the pike -- thus making the pike useless -- the pike man then would have released / dropped the pike and drawn his "back up" blade for close in work . Ivan

 

[Bottlemanstx]

Hello Everyone,
Well the verdict is in. After a brief conversation with the conservator in Sebastian it appears my find was a close match to a roman style sword......But after putting the argon to it, it was nothing more than a heavy duty piece of iron from a large piece of equipment. He did some research on line and found that ingersoll rand made something very similar to it. The conglomeration has what appears to be a cast iron wedge and were the pommel should have been this area was chopped off revealing the thread which looked like the grip.

Oh well for now, but hey what a great conservation piece for friends and family to see when they come over. Thanks again everyone for posting your comments and you never know maybe that next beep will be my meal ticket.

I will post pictures of this item after I pick it up.

Thanks Again!!!

 

[mistergee]

hey it sure looked convincing to me....betterluck next time

 

[HalfSpeed]

Sorry Bottleman... I know your disappointed but look on the bright side.... all the excitement for you and us. You won't soon forget that thrill.

 

[JP]

Sorry to hear that it's not one Bottleman.

What a disappointment to find out it's modern garbage. It's happened to me several times with other items.

Wow, it looked real.

Always remember it's the fun of the hunt.

Good luck and HH.

 

[ivan salis]

dang I was rootin for ya

 

[Mitch1FL]

Shame, I was waiting to see a nice piece of history displayed. Well keep on beep'n

 

[Bottlemanstx]

Well now that the holidays are over and everyone has gone home I was able to get some photos of what I thought was a rapier. Below are a few pics after it was cleaned up. Enjoy and happy hunting.

 

[mistergee]

man.....thats a bummer