Crotal Bell?

Trapper25 · Jun 17, 2020

Hello everyone!

I was MD’ing an old pasture and found what I’m pretty sure is a crotal bell. It looks a lot like ones I’ve seen on YouTube videos and google searches. I was just curious as to how often other MD’ers find these as well.

Thanks for looking at my find!

Benson10 · Jun 17, 2020

Found my first one about a month ago....and it still has it’s “voice”! Sweet sound!

Stiffwrists · Jun 17, 2020

Awesome. Definitely a crotal bell. They usually have numbers on them designating size. Looks like yours is a #2.

Great find. I've only found pieces. No complete ones. Maybe some day...

Trapper25 · Jun 17, 2020

Thanks Benson10, yours looks great too. Definitely my best find yet.

Trapper25 · Jun 17, 2020

Stiffwrists said:
Awesome. Definitely a crotal bell. They usually have numbers on them designating size. Looks like yours is a #2.

Great find. I've only found pieces. No complete ones. Maybe some day...

Thank you! I was wondering what the 2 meant. You’ll find one! It took me 3 hours of digging nothing but iron tonight.

georgeinsc · Jun 17, 2020

I have never heard of one being found in the south. They do show up from time in the northern states. Very nice find.

Diabolik · Jun 17, 2020

I have found 2 in my local park. One in a stream a couple of months ago with a big hole in it and a missing pea. I just dug another one on Sunday in the same park on the opposite side of the park under some old trees. This one is complete and the pea is still in it. Yours is awesome. Neither of mine have the scroll work or any numbers that I can see.

Longhair · Jun 17, 2020

With that design on it, it is generally referred to as a "Petal Bell".

Diabolik · Jun 17, 2020

What were these actually used for? The ones I found were not deep at all. Trapper’s bell looks to have a nice brass mount on the back of it, both of mine have a clump of what looks like rusty metal where a mount used to be.

Trapper25 · Jun 17, 2020

georgeinsc said:
I have never heard of one being found in the south. They do show up from time in the northern states. Very nice find.

Thank you! I live in Iowa. Sorry if that caused any confusion.

Trapper25 · Jun 17, 2020

Diabolik said:
I have found 2 in my local park. One in a stream a couple of months ago with a big hole in it and a missing pea. I just dug another one on Sunday in the same park on the opposite side of the park under some old trees. This one is complete and the pea is still in it. Yours is awesome. Neither of mine have the scroll work or any numbers that I can see.

Yours is an awesome find! And thank you!

Trapper25 · Jun 17, 2020

Longhair said:
With that design on it, it is generally referred to as a "Petal Bell".

Thank you for that information. I didn’t know that.

Trapper25 · Jun 17, 2020

Diabolik said:
What were these actually used for? The ones I found were not deep at all. Trapper’s bell looks to have a nice brass mount on the back of it, both of mine have a clump of what looks like rusty metal where a mount used to be.

From what I’ve seen online it sounds like they were actually used on sleighs and carriages to warn other vehicles that they were coming.

Longhair · Jun 17, 2020

Trapper25 said:
From what I’ve seen online it sounds like they were actually used on sleighs and carriages to warn other vehicles that they were coming.

More on sleighs than carriages. Horse's feet and sleigh runners don't make much noise in the snow, but wheels and feet on dry ground do.

Trapper25 · Jun 18, 2020

Longhair said:
More on sleighs than carriages. Horse's feet and sleigh runners don't make much noise in the snow, but wheels and feet on dry ground do.

Ahhh that makes sense.

waltr · Jun 18, 2020

Nice Crotal. These are some of my favorite finds especially if intact and best if they still ring.

Here is some info:
https://classicbells.com/info/bellMakers.asp

emesis · Jun 18, 2020

12 years of detecting i've found 5 complete bells, probably found at least that many broken ones. Was with a friend who found a larger size bell almost the size of a tennis ball. Some bells are worth a pretty penny. Cool find.

GLASSHOPPER1955 · Jun 18, 2020

IDK is this a true Crotal Bell? Found in crawlspace of old house years ago:

Trapper25 · Jun 18, 2020

waltr said:
Nice Crotal. These are some of my favorite finds especially if intact and best if they still ring.

Here is some info:
https://classicbells.com/info/bellMakers.asp

Thank you so much for that link. Awesome stuff!

Trapper25 · Jun 18, 2020

emesis said:
12 years of detecting i've found 5 complete bells, probably found at least that many broken ones. Was with a friend who found a larger size bell almost the size of a tennis ball. Some bells are worth a pretty penny. Cool find.

That’s awesome. I hope to find many more.

Crotal Bell?

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