Knee Buckle Piece?

Not much to go on here guys. I spent hours canvassing through the woods in central NC trying to find an iron patch and dug this. Looks like it could be a piece of a knee buckle to me, but wanted to get opinions from diggers more experienced. Has a flower (I think) design on the corners, but does not show well in the pictures. Not sure what kind of metal it is. Point of getting an ID is I plan to head back to that spot if it is a buckle.
No other real finds in the area except some smaller round balls which did not look too old to me.
Thanks for looking!