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I got a fever and the only prescription is more cowbell!

FreeBirdTim

Elite Member
Joined
Oct 11, 2018
Messages
1,870
Location
Scituate, RI
Sorry, couldn't resist! Detecting along a stone wall deep in the woods today. Found an iron buckle and then a couple of feet away I found a big, old cowbell. Wasn't even deep, maybe 3 inches max. The cowbell is very solid, so I'm going to try some electrolysis on it tomorrow.
 

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Nice finds. I've got an old cow bell hanging in my garage.

Sent from my SM-T580 using Tapatalk
 
Nice digs! Ive found like 3 or 4 iron buckles in the last couple hunts, they can sound really good, especially deeper ones. Good luck on your next outing!
 
Okay, I zapped it for a few hours with no real progress. Then I gave it a couple of hours in citric acid. When I took it out of the acid bath, it was pinkish! The cowbell is copper plated or has copper wash on it. Can't figure out why the iron would be over the copper though.

This morning, I ground some of the remaining rust off with a wire wheel. Definite improvement, but still have some rust remaining. Not sure what my next step will be. Spray it with clear coat and leave it alone? Do nothing and hope the rust doesn't get worse? Tough decision...
 

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That has got to be one of the coolest relic finds yet. I see crotal bells but I think this is the first HUGE bell I’ve seen. VERY nice pick Tim!
 
The pinkish color just means the iron had copper in it. I find old nails all the time that had high copper content that do the same thing.
 
The pinkish color just means the iron had copper in it. I find old nails all the time that had high copper content that do the same thing.
That could explain it. I knew something was up when I saw green spots forming on top of the iron while I was giving it an electrolysis bath.
 
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