Places are never hunted out.

[MangoAve]

The idea to take a half day crossed my mind but no acknowledgment I muddled through the eight hour day. I tried a bit of door knocking. There were two places in mind, with about another 40 possibilities along the way never researched as well as other fall backs. The first place there were many cars in the driveway, one convertible with the top down, but no one answered the door. Time to move on and think of this place another time. I did pass by one half a million dollar house on the way but ended up at an 1800 house. His dogs were jumping around as soon as I got out of the car. I did talk to him a bit. I think it was once I mentioned metal detecting he kind of opened up a bit and realized I wasn't a solicitor. He said he only found a seated quarter in the field, 1854, with a fair amount of detail. It was nicked up but said it was tilled up from his field. He told me there have been at least six since he lived there asking about detecting and he felt it was hunted out. He showed me his ridiculous collection of Herkimer diamonds. I was told I can come back any time even if he wasn't around. He said he and his wife even tried to detect it with their coinmasters. I started getting some weird activity as i turned it on but there was a dog fence in his yard. First target was an old pocket knife. Possibly someone may be able to estimate a date for it. Near the front walk I found some brass cap in the same hole as three nails including one bent one. It looked like a bottom to a shotgun shell but I am not sure what it is. Another place out front I found a wheel to a toy, probably a toy train. After a little while I realized I didn't have any spare batteries so I just continued for a bit. Low batteries pretty much starting out and I found these items mostly 15 feet from the dog fence. I picked up to head home as it was getting dark. I saw him one more time. He liked how light my machine is and the light mod. Also he offered if I ever wanted to go with him up to Herkimer for the day to his private place where he gets his stones. They were over 1000 carats. Here;s the pics of the finds in a hunted place. Future place to check.

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[Bell-Two]

Neat old pocket knife not trying to sound dumb but what are Herkimer diamonds?

[Trooper Bri]

They're a form of quartz Tony. I forget exactly what makes it different from regular quartz, but they can be very clear. Hence the nickname.

Jim, that's a unique offer. Take it up (and take pics). CT and the rest of New England is peppered with small mine spots like that. I can remember stopping at one or two places here back in the 80's that had crystals for sale from small sites.

[MangoAve]

Tony don't worry, there are even some things I don't know. :lol: Wait, did I just admit that? They do make some jewelry from it but you won't find the jewelry at Zales. Only if you know about rocks and minerals is when you know about herkimers. Even then I bet someone into rocks hasn't heard of boulder opal. Bri, It's the type of crystaline structure which makes it a herkimer. Double terminated. There was even a mine for other quartz out near those cellar holes you and I went to.

I'm thinking tho the guy was surprised what I popped out of there being under the impression it was cleaned out.

[MangoAve]

I think I figured out that cap piece. Last night at the YTC meeting the items were out. I noticed that the slot in the outside portion of the cap piece is offset from the raised portion. It's only maybe 120 or 135 degrees instead of 180 degrees. I believe this was the tumbler piece to a skeleton key lock. The inner slot with rounded edge is where the skeleton key slides into. So anyone who might find such a piece later on has an idea from this thread.

[aloldstuff]

Very nice old pocket knife. Great research on the tumbler.