So, if you read my previous post you know I was out in the hills fighting my way through the brush and prickers to get back home late Saturday night. It was dusk as I came into a clearing and found my way to a small wooden bridge that leads back to "civilization". As I get to the other side, I see my neighbor is out getting something from his car, I have to pass by him to get home. I started yelling over to him to get his attention, as I thought that may be less startling than seeing some 6' giant with a big shovel, and long black "gun" looking thing slung over my shoulder coming out of the darkness. After a few awkward moments he realizes who it is and we start chatting it up. The whole time I'm trying to figure out a good way to segue into getting permission to hunt his property. He sort of maintains his landscaping fairly well, and I always figured he wouldn't want anyone digging on it. The side of the street I had just come from, has a small stream that was able to power 4 mills on my road from the early 1800's on into the early 1900's. On his side were some residential houses, mine being one of the oldest dating back to 1850. However, his property first had a victorian house on it which burned down, and now has an older cape. He has several acres of nice flat green grass that I'm sure people running the mills used to drop lots of stuff on. So back to our conversation, I finally crudely bring up my metal detector and offer my services if he ever loses anything, or has a friend who does. This in turn prompts him to offer up his property to detect, BINGO!! I explain to him how I dig plugs and never leave holes etc etc, we set some ground rules, and I go home and try to get some "night before X-mas" sleep.
The next day, I assist the wife in getting the kids ready for Church. I doubt they had pulled out of our road by the time my feet hit the grass running! As with my house, the first 10 feet surrounding his house is a flood of nails. Very tough going, I was also still a bit wary. He wasn't home, and I didn't want him to come home and see me swarming all over his house. I opted to detect a bit farther away, following the grass from his front walk to his driveway. I started gridding back and forth, the results being the fairly modern wheaties and silver rosies, 4 of each as it turns out! I also found the 2 dog tags during my searching.
Not wanting to cherry pick the silver field, I move on to a stump of a 200 year old tree he had cut down late last season. It was over hanging the road and was getting dangerous. So half of the shade it provided to those 1800's mill workers (it is directly across the street from where a mill once stood) is paved over, the other half is on my neighbors lawn. I carefully moved about close to the street, and found the 4 coat weights in the pictures below. Surprisingly, not a lot of trash for being so near the road.
I work my way back away from the tree, and find the H. Armstrong maker tag. I live on Armstrong Road, and H. Armstrong owned the mill from 1881-1886. He made covered wagons, and cotton cards! This was probably what he tacked onto his merchandise.
I worked my way further away from the tree and found a sweet signal that I was hoping was a large cent, but turned out to be the guts of a very deep (12"+) pocket watch. After cleaning I could make out that it was an American Waltham Watch Company movement. The patent date was from 1884, and I could make out the serial number which dates is between 1887-1888. http://www.pocketwatchsite.com/walthamserials.html I followed the link on this page, to their database and typed in the serial number. http://www.nawcc-info.org/WalthamDB/LookupSN.asp This gave me slightly different information. It is a model 1883, and this serial number puts it in a date range of 3-1-1889 - 6-30-1889. Either way, pretty cool find, and really fun doing the reasearch.
At some point, I found an odd item that I don't know what it is. It seems familiar, like I should know what it is, but I can't place it. It is the last picture I posted, does anyone have an idea what it is? It looks like it is composed of tiny beads of some metal, perhaps brass, pressed together to form its shape. The sides and top read 8 ferrous, and 11-14 conductivity. The bottom (which is thicker) reads 8 ferrous and a 24-25 conductivity. Any ideas what it is?
Well, a very exciting weekend for me, enjoy the pictures.
Jai
The next day, I assist the wife in getting the kids ready for Church. I doubt they had pulled out of our road by the time my feet hit the grass running! As with my house, the first 10 feet surrounding his house is a flood of nails. Very tough going, I was also still a bit wary. He wasn't home, and I didn't want him to come home and see me swarming all over his house. I opted to detect a bit farther away, following the grass from his front walk to his driveway. I started gridding back and forth, the results being the fairly modern wheaties and silver rosies, 4 of each as it turns out! I also found the 2 dog tags during my searching.
Not wanting to cherry pick the silver field, I move on to a stump of a 200 year old tree he had cut down late last season. It was over hanging the road and was getting dangerous. So half of the shade it provided to those 1800's mill workers (it is directly across the street from where a mill once stood) is paved over, the other half is on my neighbors lawn. I carefully moved about close to the street, and found the 4 coat weights in the pictures below. Surprisingly, not a lot of trash for being so near the road.
I work my way back away from the tree, and find the H. Armstrong maker tag. I live on Armstrong Road, and H. Armstrong owned the mill from 1881-1886. He made covered wagons, and cotton cards! This was probably what he tacked onto his merchandise.
I worked my way further away from the tree and found a sweet signal that I was hoping was a large cent, but turned out to be the guts of a very deep (12"+) pocket watch. After cleaning I could make out that it was an American Waltham Watch Company movement. The patent date was from 1884, and I could make out the serial number which dates is between 1887-1888. http://www.pocketwatchsite.com/walthamserials.html I followed the link on this page, to their database and typed in the serial number. http://www.nawcc-info.org/WalthamDB/LookupSN.asp This gave me slightly different information. It is a model 1883, and this serial number puts it in a date range of 3-1-1889 - 6-30-1889. Either way, pretty cool find, and really fun doing the reasearch.
At some point, I found an odd item that I don't know what it is. It seems familiar, like I should know what it is, but I can't place it. It is the last picture I posted, does anyone have an idea what it is? It looks like it is composed of tiny beads of some metal, perhaps brass, pressed together to form its shape. The sides and top read 8 ferrous, and 11-14 conductivity. The bottom (which is thicker) reads 8 ferrous and a 24-25 conductivity. Any ideas what it is?
Well, a very exciting weekend for me, enjoy the pictures.
Jai
Looks like a good day to me!