DIGGER27
In Memory Of
Some of you know I have been hunting an old farmhouse site that used to be private but now is part of a public park.
Luckily this is a huge and beautiful park and it is really close to me so I can come here even when I don't have a lot of time,
Many have come here to this site, many have left when they discovered the huge amount of iron here, large, medium, small and a conservative estimate about a million nails of all sizes.
Just about every hole I open going after something at least 2-3 nails come out, sometimes more, and there are all kinds of rusty wire bits and who knows what else.
I have been here several times before with all kinds of detectors and coils and managed to find a few wheaties but that was about it.
On 7-27 I came back with the F70 and the standard coil and tried something out of the blue I call the "Blast Through" method.
Nothing else worked really well so far, using disc was not bad but just about everything that is not iron is badly masked so I figured I would try to turn the F70 up as hot as I could get it and search in all metal and see if I could get a piece of a few good signals at least, and hopefully recognize those targets and dig them with the crazy tones and jumping numbers on the screen that these settings caused in this the most difficult and most iron infested site I have ever hunted.
Surprisingly, this method worked like a charm and I was able to dig several items that were cool and not iron.
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=195537
I also dug some of the larger iron signals, from hunting here in the past I know that sometimes some of those items are very interesting...even though I don't have a clue about what they are or their purpose.
A few days later I came back and continued to practice this crazy method and got a little better each time, and this hunt I found a merc and an old wheatie in the same hole even though the area around it was saturated with iron and there was even a big ol' nail in the hole right next to them.
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=195665
The next day a short hunt and still practicing, a small pocket knife was the prize that day.
The next day I was back for a bit more time and still on the hunt for more silver but I had no idea what my new skills would enable me to find that day...my first ever walker and it was a half!
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=195804
Since that time I have been back some more, a few wheaties have popped up but if there is more silver I know it will just take some time and patience to find them in this challenging site.
I have many other places to hunt, but now that I know I can avoid most all of the nails and all of the bigger iron that I don't feel like digging I can't seem to tear myself away from here because the targets I am digging up, even if they aren't old coins are so old and interesting.
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=196128
This interesting stuff is just never ending at this place and you never know what surprise each hole will hold in store.
Here a a couple of objects I have dug lately, a postage paid key thingy that I think is from the 60's or 70's so the owner probably was in Viet Nam for a time, and an aluminum token that you can still get at carnivals if they still have the old stamping machines but I think this one came from about the 40's or 50's.
Also a 5" long iron horse that I thought was a toy but I found out the last owner was a real cowboy at one time in his life so this might have been off a trophy or some sort of display piece in this old home.
I have also dug 4 pocket knives so far in various conditions, and buckles of all kinds, eating utensils, silver plated, and they are still coming.
I have set a goal to dig as many pocket knives possible out of this place and I have no idea how many there actually are but I don't think I'm done yet.
Some more iron I dug on the last 3 hunts, again don't have a clue about some of it.
But wait...there's more!
Went back this morning for another short hunt, now that I am getting good at sifting through this kind of a site the finds are getting even more interesting.
Here are the latest goodies, 2 really neat ones from today.
When I dug this one I knew what it was even though it was a little wrecked.
The back of an old pocket watch case.
Can't track down the case numbers, unlike Elgin there doesn't seem to be records for this company, but doing research and discovering this Philadelphia Watch Case Co. merged with another company in 1904 and soon after their name was taken off the cases.
I believe this might be a nickel case made between 1888 and 1904.
Silverode was just one of many names companies used for silver looking watches that actually had no silver.
One of the last targets I dug might be the neatest one of all not counting those coins, and again I immediately knew what it was when I dug it because I dug his big brother early in the year at another site.
Know what it is?
It is a mini lighter, they are called wheel or slip lighters, some call them trench lighters.
I found a regular sized pocket version without the cap and it was fun researching these things.
They have been making these types since the 30's at companies all over the world, but in all the research I did on that first one I never saw any reference to a mini-me model like this one.
Just like the big one I dug that was black as coal underneath it is actually brass underneath because I scratched about 70 years of dirt off of it to make sure so some elbow grease and this thing is going to look cool!
Again, I think sometime in the 30's or 40's for the age but I might not ever find out and that is fine.
As long as the hits keep coming I plan on spending a lot more time here till I am sure as I can be that no more coins are hiding out, and looking at what is coming out of the ground I don't believe boredom will ever be a problem here.
Luckily this is a huge and beautiful park and it is really close to me so I can come here even when I don't have a lot of time,
Many have come here to this site, many have left when they discovered the huge amount of iron here, large, medium, small and a conservative estimate about a million nails of all sizes.
Just about every hole I open going after something at least 2-3 nails come out, sometimes more, and there are all kinds of rusty wire bits and who knows what else.
I have been here several times before with all kinds of detectors and coils and managed to find a few wheaties but that was about it.
On 7-27 I came back with the F70 and the standard coil and tried something out of the blue I call the "Blast Through" method.
Nothing else worked really well so far, using disc was not bad but just about everything that is not iron is badly masked so I figured I would try to turn the F70 up as hot as I could get it and search in all metal and see if I could get a piece of a few good signals at least, and hopefully recognize those targets and dig them with the crazy tones and jumping numbers on the screen that these settings caused in this the most difficult and most iron infested site I have ever hunted.
Surprisingly, this method worked like a charm and I was able to dig several items that were cool and not iron.
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=195537
I also dug some of the larger iron signals, from hunting here in the past I know that sometimes some of those items are very interesting...even though I don't have a clue about what they are or their purpose.
A few days later I came back and continued to practice this crazy method and got a little better each time, and this hunt I found a merc and an old wheatie in the same hole even though the area around it was saturated with iron and there was even a big ol' nail in the hole right next to them.
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=195665
The next day a short hunt and still practicing, a small pocket knife was the prize that day.
The next day I was back for a bit more time and still on the hunt for more silver but I had no idea what my new skills would enable me to find that day...my first ever walker and it was a half!
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=195804
Since that time I have been back some more, a few wheaties have popped up but if there is more silver I know it will just take some time and patience to find them in this challenging site.
I have many other places to hunt, but now that I know I can avoid most all of the nails and all of the bigger iron that I don't feel like digging I can't seem to tear myself away from here because the targets I am digging up, even if they aren't old coins are so old and interesting.
http://metaldetectingforum.com/showthread.php?t=196128
This interesting stuff is just never ending at this place and you never know what surprise each hole will hold in store.
Here a a couple of objects I have dug lately, a postage paid key thingy that I think is from the 60's or 70's so the owner probably was in Viet Nam for a time, and an aluminum token that you can still get at carnivals if they still have the old stamping machines but I think this one came from about the 40's or 50's.
Also a 5" long iron horse that I thought was a toy but I found out the last owner was a real cowboy at one time in his life so this might have been off a trophy or some sort of display piece in this old home.
I have also dug 4 pocket knives so far in various conditions, and buckles of all kinds, eating utensils, silver plated, and they are still coming.
I have set a goal to dig as many pocket knives possible out of this place and I have no idea how many there actually are but I don't think I'm done yet.
Some more iron I dug on the last 3 hunts, again don't have a clue about some of it.
But wait...there's more!
Went back this morning for another short hunt, now that I am getting good at sifting through this kind of a site the finds are getting even more interesting.
Here are the latest goodies, 2 really neat ones from today.
When I dug this one I knew what it was even though it was a little wrecked.
The back of an old pocket watch case.
Can't track down the case numbers, unlike Elgin there doesn't seem to be records for this company, but doing research and discovering this Philadelphia Watch Case Co. merged with another company in 1904 and soon after their name was taken off the cases.
I believe this might be a nickel case made between 1888 and 1904.
Silverode was just one of many names companies used for silver looking watches that actually had no silver.
One of the last targets I dug might be the neatest one of all not counting those coins, and again I immediately knew what it was when I dug it because I dug his big brother early in the year at another site.
Know what it is?
It is a mini lighter, they are called wheel or slip lighters, some call them trench lighters.
I found a regular sized pocket version without the cap and it was fun researching these things.
They have been making these types since the 30's at companies all over the world, but in all the research I did on that first one I never saw any reference to a mini-me model like this one.
Just like the big one I dug that was black as coal underneath it is actually brass underneath because I scratched about 70 years of dirt off of it to make sure so some elbow grease and this thing is going to look cool!
Again, I think sometime in the 30's or 40's for the age but I might not ever find out and that is fine.
As long as the hits keep coming I plan on spending a lot more time here till I am sure as I can be that no more coins are hiding out, and looking at what is coming out of the ground I don't believe boredom will ever be a problem here.
