Starting a day with 4 spoons.

[MangoAve]

Saturday I continued the streak of having to get up around 6a. :girlcry: Well, it was for detecting and not work. ;) The guy who facilitated last year's penguin hunt wanted to set something up. Well, it turned out to be 7 ppl. It ended up being a place I knew about that was 'pounded' to my standards :lol:, but had many cellars. I immediately went toward the two that I knew had some promise to them. It took a while, maybe 1/2 hr, before I finally found something worth digging. It was the spoon handle missing the bowl, right up next to a tree maybe 15-20yr old. After a little while longer in this same area where there was a ton of iron and a worn trail I noticed going toward the water, I pulled another spoon. This one looks like pewter in the fact it is frail and has broken edged and is grey color. After a while, we all headed to the second hole. This one was also hiding two more spoons. The three handles all are ornate. Finally other stuff started popping up like the rein guide, an obvious really shallow quarter signal 25 ft from the cellar behind a barberry (but was accessible, ref the blurb on the buttons below). The oval piece is an iron compact and I had never seen a silver plated harmonica reed. If they are normally, none of the 50 I have dug before still had any silver wash left on them. Just this one. I was still finding stuff (and might have found more if I stayed or had the small coil to change out), but One of the guys came back to get me. They all went back to the other cellar area. WTH?
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I followed the guy who came back to get me and we tried a bit more in the fields to a cellar closer to the cars. I think most of the fields there were pasture as there were stones in them and it was a slope, but there was one flatter one with some heavy barberry and a lot more iron. I do believe I went thru this same field on 5/28, but just a quick pass as the ferns were so high four months ago. Well, I ended up nabbing the two smaller flat buttons 3ft apart. Now with them yelling a while ago (even with one earpiece off you can't tell what they are screaming from 1/2 mile away.) I went up from the field to a big rock and took a break to grab more to eat. I saw one person stayed behind and was going into the same field I was just in. I went down to meet back up. Good thing, because he found a button which prompted me to recheck the area. I got into those barberries and ended up with a total of 5 buttons from this one small area. All old flat buttons. One a nice dandy with a sunburst pattern and what I think is a clover stamp all around the rim. A decent hunt, but no coins this time.

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The top left is a really broken button. It was a nice green out of the ground (and is still mostly green). The pic color is a tad off. I'd also like to add that I did a different cleaning process on things like the folded spoon and the harmonica reed. The trick I was told was to use 50/50 water and clr. This time I just used H202 and a toothbrush. It came out looking just as good. Prob wasn't as harsh to the surface as clr likes to turn the brass areas a reddish color.

[chief5709]

Nice job on the pounded cellar holes. I've never found a harmonica reed that was silver plated so add my dozen to your 50 :coffeelaugh:

[OxShoeDrew]

Jim, Maybe all harmonica reeds are garbage plated and we never find them in such good condition? Just guessing here.
I've also been with people who wanted to leave a site and I was like "what the heck?" Although most likely I'm the one who wants to leave :lol:
Good looking finds!

[CTTodd]

You did well grinding it out.

[Lodge Scent]

That must have been the rare and expensive super deluxe harmonica model Jim. I've never found a plated reed either. Funny, I have much more patience to stay at a pounded site when I am alone versus when I am at a pounded site with a group. I like the button. Yeah, I've turned a few red by using naval jelly to clean them. Nice bunch of finds from a hunted out site.

[MangoAve]

Nice job on the pounded cellar holes. I've never found a harmonica reed that was silver plated so add my dozen to your 50 :coffeelaugh:

Thanks, Brian. Idk if you remember me finding 7 reeds in one hunt... lol. After 3, it was annoying....why can't these signals be something like a button!!!! :hairpulling:


Jim, Maybe all harmonica reeds are garbage plated and we never find them in such good condition? Just guessing here.
I've also been with people who wanted to leave a site and I was like "what the heck?" Although most likely I'm the one who wants to leave :lol:
Good looking finds!

Idk Drew. I read your response which prompted looking it up. At least now they do still have brass mouth pieces and some brass reeds. Seems harmonicas can be stainless steel (obvi they didn't have SS in the mid 1800s.), silver, nickel silver, or chrome. So, there is a chance some of them were plated back in the day. Obvi, a silver plating would put it later than 1840 as that is around the time plated spoons became more prevalent as the process was a bit easier.


You did well grinding it out.

Thanks, Todd. I may go back to a some specific spots cuz I know I will pull more. The old Dave Wise man goes back to pounded cellars and pulls stuff...


That must have been the rare and expensive super deluxe harmonica model Jim. I've never found a plated reed either. Funny, I have much more patience to stay at a pounded site when I am alone versus when I am at a pounded site with a group. I like the button. Yeah, I've turned a few red by using naval jelly to clean them. Nice bunch of finds from a hunted out site.

Lol. It might be a tad newer reed or maybe the majority were just brass. I saw on a forum where I found the information I replied to Drew, that some prefer the sound of SS, but brass can give you the option to retune. It also looks as if reeds went bad often, which is why we tend to find them often. Guessing harmonicas were easier to repair back then. The family did have money, because the house was built of stone and is still standing (yes, Drew :pirate:) I find it easier to move on when out alone, seeing as it is easier to just pick up and go. No rounding up people. No whining "But I wanna stay here". :lol: the people I get out with don't whine like that. Maybe about how hot it is. Never tried naval jelly. I just know the CLR is a chemical so despite being fine to clean the still plated surfaces, the exposed brass doesn't seem to like it. Peroxide just isn't that harsh, hence why I might use it more. It is cheaper, too. Lol. Like 88 cents for the bottles at W mart whilst the CLR is like $6 at HD.

[Digger_O'Dell]

Very nice hunt for pounded sites! Like that button too, great looking design on it.

[BTV Digger]

Nice job on sniffing out the remaining goods Jim. The sunburst patterned coat button will look nice in your collection.

John

[MangoAve]

Very nice hunt for pounded sites! Like that button too, great looking design on it.

Thanks, Chris. That's all we got in CT is to sniff out things at these pounded cellars. All about luck with where you place the coil as one person only walked out with a single button and a 1910 wheat. No skunking nor comparison to quality, just a comparison to quantity.


Nice job on sniffing out the remaining goods Jim. The sunburst patterned coat button will look nice in your collection.
John

Thanks, John. I am sure there is more to find and a few others still wanted to go back. I wanted to get out this Saturday, too, nearby. Not the same spot... but there is a convention for something else (has some bearing on the reason my presence was scarce for a while) on the 30th as well. Looks like I got a decision to make. Lol. Could just take I-84 from there with a change of clothes. For the displays, I have a spare big box. One of the guys I get out with was incapacitated like me, but he's gonna be laid up for a while longer. He is part of the YTC club and got a few spare boxes. They were either $5 or $10 a piece, way less than other displays, but the spacing is too big for buttons. Maybe crotals and barrel taps. I might have to get more displays with smaller partitions first.

[aloldstuff]

Jim, nice hunting and I hope you are well on your way to a full recovery. Judging from your posts I'm gonna lean that way. Braving the bushes without your smaller coil paid off, 5 buttons and all flats. Keep at it. :congrats:

[calabash digger]

cool finds you got there.

[MangoAve]

Jim, nice hunting and I hope you are well on your way to a full recovery. Judging from your posts I'm gonna lean that way. Braving the bushes without your smaller coil paid off, 5 buttons and all flats. Keep at it. :congrats:

Thanks, Al. I braved the barberry this weekend, too, and it paid off. The only downside is that still with gloves, I get a few of those thorns as splinters. One that started hurting on the knuckle while I was out there I'm thinking might have been a spider bite... obvi a non-venomous one. Def getting better but it's either a slow mend or a few instances with a step back.


cool finds you got there.

Thanks, Calabash. I wish the camera showed better, but the folded spoon still has some gilt. Obvi the star was the designed dandy...but if I got right color/light on everything, it'd have looked a tad better.