Treasure Hunting

So... it is too cold to dredge right now, but we still wanted to have an adventure, so instead we went treasure hunting with metal detectors. It was really just a trial run, but it was a success! David has done his homework and has some educated ideas about where to find things, and it proved to be accurate. And no, sorry. I can't tell where! He came across some kind of a bolt, and I came across some sort of old iron relics. They look to be at least a hundred years old.




Part of the dirt and rust is starting to come off the first 2 already as you can see in this updated photo below....


Here's the hole that we dug them out of:




And here is me, all bundled up for the Wintery day, where my first treasure was just found. lol!


We're not sure if they could have been used in farming, or by civil war troops, or maybe something else. But I'm in the process of cleaning them now so we can better see.


The best way to clean found iron relics? Well, we got the items home and did a little researching online (gotta love the internet!), and quickly learned that the way to go is electrolysis. Thank goodness David was capable of rigging one up with some "everyday" stuff that I convenietly had hanging around my house.



Some copper wires, steel or stainless steel, the right battery charger set at the right setting, baking soda water in a plastic container, and there you have it.



The water began to get a ton of oxidization in it so we changed out the steel plate for stainless steel: old fork, for the win. ROFL!



More to come after all 3 parts have been cleaned and are all pretty. Then it'll be time for some identification.

How funny that the episode covering treasure hunting/gold mining is on the Travel Channel while I'm writing this, heeeeeee. ^_^