Three objects tonight!

clf_02 · Mar 19, 2013

First is brass ornate on one side. The other side is flat and looks like it was attached. I'm thinking possibly the bottom of a riffle for the ram rod to slide through......second is brass and looks like a modern day tongue ring. if you look closely you will see a slit in the ball on the second pic of it. it has two slits crossing each other on both balls where they opened them to insert the shaft and bent them back.....third is a big chunk of lead, wondering if its carved or even civil war?

Charlie P. (NY) · Mar 19, 2013

I think the two balls on a shaft are a collar bar. I have one just like it.

BosnMate · Mar 19, 2013

What you found looks like it might be a ram rod thimble. The thimble is attached to the rifle stock with a pin. Note the photo showing a thimble in the process of being attached to a gun stock. The second photo shows the flange that the pin goes through. So if you in fact have a ramrod thimble there should be at least some semblance of a flange on it, or some way for it to be attached to a wood stock. Thimbles on a half stock rifle attached differently. The half stock rifle the stock only goes part way up the barrel, and the is an under rib that the thimbles are either soldered on like in the close up photo. Where the ramrod goes into the wood, that isn't called a thimble, that's called an "entry pipe." The last picture is what a half stock rifle looks like. A full stock, the wood goes all the way up the barrel.

clf_02 · Mar 19, 2013

Looks very similar to the half stock rifle one

clf_02 · Mar 19, 2013

The last photo of it was to show where it had been soldiered or attached to something. It's a hard black stuff there on it.

clf_02 · Mar 19, 2013

You guys are good. I think you both nailed the id's of these

clf_02 · Mar 19, 2013

So is that chunk of lead civil war or an old chunk of lead from something else?

clf_02 · Mar 19, 2013

I have found camp lead before but not a chunk like that

duggap · Mar 20, 2013

On the piece of lead, you probably have a small piece of a smelting bar. Early on the boys carried a bar of lead for casting.

Bryanhashemi · Mar 20, 2013

from the patina of the lead chunk, its of the civil war era. They did carry that around. Found lots of those

materdigger1 · Mar 20, 2013

Awsome finds rite there for sure

surf · Mar 20, 2013

Hey clf,

I'm voting cufflink:

clf_02 · Mar 20, 2013

I guess cuff link is possible. But if you google image search brass collar bar, they all have the same basic design as my object. Doing a google image search for brass cuff links or brass bar cuff links and it does not show one single pair designed like the ones you pictured. So I say it's possible but by the odds it's more likely a collar bar

Breezie · Mar 21, 2013

clf_02 said:
I guess cuff link is possible. But if you google image search brass collar bar, they all have the same basic design as my object. Doing a google image search for brass cuff links or brass bar cuff links and it does not show one single pair designed like the ones you pictured. So I say it's possible but by the odds it's more likely a collar bar

Surf is correct; it is a cuff link from the late Victorian period. Collar bars are much longer, and judging by the length in comparison to the mini bullet, it is way too short to be a collar bar. Men's collar bars from the Victorian era were almost always 'bars,' and not the more modern 'dumbbell' type. Dumbbell collar bars are threaded on at least one end.

Breezie