What size nuggets to own for testing

[landman]

As a newbie I'm not completely familiar with penny weight, mesh sizes, grams.
What I want to do is test a metal detector with various sizes of small nuggets and flakes.
Would someone please post a range of nugget sizes that would be appropriate to testing.
What is the smallest? Use whatever weight measurement
you chose. Thank you.

 

[fredm]

while many still use the archaic troy oz...and pennyweight stuff...most of the world deals in metric. Learn grains, grams and kilograms...

Testing what detector. What coil. WHAtever...the question is too broad. For a nugget hunting detector smaller is better-1-3 Grains...or even 1/10 of a Grain.
for scientific testing you need all sizes and types.

most of your questions about proformance have been studied and answered if you do some research-unless, of course, you must prove it all for yourself.

good luck
fred

 

[Hoser John]

ARCHAIC hahaha no ....the correct measures of weight. 20 pennyweight to a ounce and or 31.1 grams per ounce and 12 ounces to a pound. EZ to do. The whole world utilizes these formulas as standardized gold transfer weights. A 1/2 gram nugget or 1/3 dwt. glued to a poker chip is all you need to bury in the ground a couple of inches to make sure your unit is working correctly. Microwave towers,repeaters,sun spots and weak batteries all cause trouble and just knowing your unit is running right sure helps. You also instantly know if your unit has the ability to GB out the highly mineralized black sands that drive some units crazy. John

 

[Digger Bob]

ARCHAIC hahaha no ....the correct measures of weight. 20 pennyweight to a ounce and or 31.1 grams per ounce and 12 ounces to a pound. EZ to do. The whole world utilizes these formulas as standardized gold transfer weights. A 1/2 gram nugget or 1/3 dwt. glued to a poker chip is all you need to bury in the ground a couple of inches to make sure your unit is working correctly. Microwave towers,repeaters,sun spots and weak batteries all cause trouble and just knowing your unit is running right sure helps. You also instantly know if your unit has the ability to GB out the highly mineralized black sands that drive some units crazy. John

Ditto John. Pennyweight and grains for raw, natural gold. Grams for refined gold, coins, bars, jewelry, etc.
And yes, depending on what kind of machine you have and the ground, get two sizes. About a 1/4 dwt (about as big as a standard split shot flattened with a hammer) and a 3 grain (about 1/4 spilt shot flattened) should do for most situations.

Digger Bob

 

[landman]

After watching a couple gold detector videos and testing various sizes, it would appear
.1, .3 and .5 grams would be best for what I want to do. More specifically, to identify, test or sample streams
to then pan, high-bank or dredge.

 

[fredm]

Bob and john are archic too...that is why they are still talking pennyweights...WITH RESPECT B and J---just a different point of view and way of doing things....no insult intended....

fred

 

[Hoser John]

No offense never-can I have 1,230 grains of pasta and 1,400 grains of veggies please??? Grains righteous when reloading,favorite pastime, but precious metals and gems same same as karat is also the name a the game as walk into a jewelry shop and ask for a 11 grain diamond ring?? Each has their own place in the scheme a things. I have pharma glass sealed scales accurate down to 0.0001 gram and a dozen or so kinds in grains,grams and karat. Luv'm all especially older ones-John

 

[Hobo lobo]

Mixing grams with Troy ounces is like mixing feet and millimeters, ( I have a board that measures 1 ft. and 12 millimeters) and gold is still bought, sold and priced internationally by Troy ounces. Why would any one want to use a unit of measure that requires 31.10348? to convert to the internationally accepted unit of weight (troy) for precious metals? When I fist started mining and hunting gold (many yrs. ago) if I said I found a nugget that weighted 3 & 1/2 grams miners would have thought that I was from New York City or maybe Mars.

 

[steve herschbach]

Grams is more popular with sellers because it results in bigger numbers and sounds like more. A 3 gram nugget is obviously bigger than a 2 pennyweight nugget!

 

[Hoser John]

Accuracy has always been my driving force behind weighing in grams(at home) instead of dwt.(in the field for rough measurements) If a scale is accurate to 1/10 dwt then a scale accurate to 1/10 gram is MUCH more accurate. I'd never use such a bad scale with that lousy accuracy but just a example that the smaller the type of measurement the better accuracy is attained. John

 

[Hobo lobo]

Accuracy has always been my driving force behind weighing in grams(at home) instead of dwt.(in the field for rough measurements) If a scale is accurate to 1/10 dwt then a scale accurate to 1/10 gram is MUCH more accurate. I'd never use such a bad scale with that lousy accuracy but just a example that the smaller the type of measurement the better accuracy is attained. John

The smaller the unit of measurement the more the accuracy, a troy grain is smaller than a gram. My most accurate scale weighs down to 1/10 of a grain.

 

[steve herschbach]

No real horse in this race but because they were cheap and accurate I use digital powder scales. They weigh to 1/10 grain or 0.01 gram. So these days I tend to use grams or grains for that simple reason. And as John notes it is more accurate.

At Ganes Creek and Moore Creek all gold was weighed in Troy ounces and tenths of Troy ounces. Like a 1.27 oz nugget. The interest was in getting ounce totals so it made doing addition on a calculator much easier.

So I think it really just depends on what you are trying to achieve as to which weight system works best. I have a warm fuzzy for pennyweight just because it is old fashioned but have pretty much gone over to grams myself. More people have access to scales that weigh in grams. Nobody weighs their drugs in pennyweights!

 

[Hobo lobo]

I used DWTs when grams pretty much unheard of in the gold busness and maybe that's why I prefer Troy. I use both systems but prefer DWT, and don't consider it old fashioned, but maybe its me that's old fashioned. I don't weigh durgs in either system LOL

 

[fredm]

Yes, what ever floats your boat...miles or kilometers it will be the same distance at the end of the day-and before I sleep.

I learned grams when I went to oz and everybody there speaks Grams...plus, my old powder scales was in grams so I went from DWTs to grams and never went back...

no matter what the weighing system...I want a really big thumper for Christmas. Please, Santa, Please!
fred

 

[Hobo lobo]

No matter what system a person uses for small amounts of gold ,eventually it will be weighed and sold in Troy ounces.
1/10 of a grain is still smaller than 1/10 of a gram and a scale weighing in grams is not more accurate than a scale weighing in grains.

 

[Hoser John]

My favorite pharma scale( Henry Troemner #540) weighs down to 0.0001 gram accuracy and that's fine with me,under glass even for absolute accuracy-John

 

[Hobo lobo]

I agree. The problem, at least for me,is finding enough to weigh on my pound scale. LOL

 

[bearkat4160]

I use grams and grains for metal detecting gold and I use penny weight and troy oz's for my dredge or trommel gold.

Bearkat

 

[tvanwho]

I always wondered how many Troy ounces/pounds in AV ounces and pounds, like on my bathroom scale or a postal scale? Not all of us have troy scales handy.

-Tom

 

[steve herschbach]

28 Grams to a Avoirdupois ounce

16 Avoirdupois ounces per Avoirdupois Pound

448 Grams per Avoirdupois Pound


31.1 grams per Troy ounce

12 Troy Ounces per Troy Pound

373.2 Grams per Troy Pound


10 bathroom scale pounds x 448 divided by 373.2 equals 12 Troy Pounds

Old joke - which is lighter, a pound of gold or a pound of feathers? Answer - a pound of gold is lighter.