Tombac (?) Bell

RF1 · Nov 28, 2019

I have found multiple pieces of the same bell at several old home sites, but found a whole one yesterday at a new site. Material looks like tombac, but could be something else. The clapper is rusted away. Found the long iron thing in the same location, as well as a wagon wheel hub and a bunch of horse tack buckles. Thought maybe the long iron thing was used to hang the bell?

waltr · Nov 29, 2019

Nice Conestoga bell.

These were a brass like alloy with a few other metals to obtain a silvery color and prevent tarnish.

Probably similar to Tombac.

woodbutcher · Nov 29, 2019

I was just reading about them 5 minutes ago,lol..I found one awhile back and watched a video called green mountain metal detecting just tonight and the guy found one and called it a tombac bell...i looked it up and sure enough,,,you got one too..
They were strung across the back of horse drawn wagons way back in the day,so yours might be that old too.nice find,Congrats

waltr · Nov 30, 2019

The other piece is part of the horse/wagon harness. I don't know enough to point to which part.
Some web searching of wagon harness will find it.

Estima8tor · Dec 2, 2019

Nice Conestoga bell. Good job recovering it intact. Those old Tombac metals are very brittle and they're usually broken in several pieces.

RF1 · Dec 4, 2019

Surprised I did not remember seeing that. I like his videos!

woodbutcher said:
I was just reading about them 5 minutes ago,lol..I found one awhile back and watched a video called green mountain metal detecting just tonight and the guy found one and called it a tombac bell...i looked it up and sure enough,,,you got one too..
They were strung across the back of horse drawn wagons way back in the day,so yours might be that old too.nice find,Congrats

RF1 · Dec 4, 2019

Thanks. After Googling, looks like it is called a "hame".

waltr said:
The other piece is part of the horse/wagon harness. I don't know enough to point to which part.
Some web searching of wagon harness will find it.

Tpmetal · Dec 4, 2019

nice one! it actually a pretty big one compared to the ones I normally find.

Wolf-Dog · Dec 5, 2019

Nice looking bell! Congrats!

Tombac (?) Bell

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