[B]Heavy Iron ball 1 1/4"[/B]

[Wild Colonial Boy]

Hello

Found this near a wall, on a hill above colonial cellar hole
not sure if its a grape shot?

the nipple is just hollow encrustation it came off in my hand

 

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[Tpmetal]

not with that post in it. more likely a weight or knob from handle to something

 

[Wild Colonial Boy]

Thanks

I Have to clean so you can see better
not really a post,I will send better pictures, it is a thin cap or disk or garbage attached probably encrustations, haven't cleaned it at all
but I have seen some with raised mold spurs,

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Again, getting up from my sickbed to answer a request.

There are multi-millions of small (less than 2 inches in diameter) iron/steel balls -- most of which were manufactured for industrial or machinery purposes (such as ball-bearings), not made as artillery ammunition.

Therefore, the only thing we can do to ID such a ball with even semi-certainty is, get a super-accurate measurement of the ball's diameter, and see whether its diameter matches up with anything in the size charts in the civil-war-and-earlier US Ordnance Manual Of 1861. Of course, all of the rust-&-dirt encrustation must be removed to get a truly accurate iron-only measurement. If the diameter measurement you get from the cleaned ball is a dead-on match (within 2 one-hundredths of an inch) for an artillery ball in the Ordnance Manual, then you'll know with certainty.

For example, the Ordnance Manual says a 6-Pounder caliber artillery Canister was specified to be between 1.14" and 1.17" in diameter.

All of the above having been said... because you reported that you found it near a "Colonial" cellar-hole, it could be a Colonial era Quilted Grapeshot ball. I say "could" because the diameters of the balls in the many sizes of Colonial era Quilted Grapeshot ammunition are not known. Unfortunately, there is no Colonial time-period equivalent for the Civil War Ordnance Manual. In other words, there's no way to prove or disprove your ball from being a Colonial Quilted Grapeshot ball.

So, all you can do is clean every bit of encrustation off your iron ball and check its precisely-measured (use a Digital Caliper) diameter with the 1861 Ordnance Manual artillery-ball size charts.
Cannon bore, shot, and shell diameters for smoothbore guns

The only other thing I can say at this point is, because Grapeshot and Canister artillery ammunition contained dozens of balls, when you find one of those balls, there's usually more than just one ball at the spot where you dug it. If you can't find even one other ball like that one at the dig-site, it is "unlikely" to be a Grapeshot or Canister ball

 

[A2coins]

Looks like a pengilum wdight to a grandfather clock

 

[Wild Colonial Boy]

This is a fantastic and much needed inept response, I really appreciate the effort involved in providing such great advice
I am in my 3rd batch of white vinegar soaking, each time more and more encrustations come off, i also purchased a good Caliper
Hopefully by this weekend it should be back to its original skin size.and have your point outs ready for comparison
I am going back to same location this weekend to see if I can find more

Thanks again

 

[Wild Colonial Boy]

Dimensions of Quilted Grape Shot

I just got this from Friend in UK

This might help for earlier grape shot sizes

see page 315 for 1717/1750 table, and p-499 for later

Two tables of specifications for land service grapeshot have been prepared, the first drawn up by Albert Borgard in 1717, the second, contained in an untitled bound manuscript notebook circa 1750 attributed to Samuel Glegg, an officer of the Royal Artillery. While not entirely in agreement, both tables are very similar and are clearly describing the same sort of grapeshot.

https://sha.org/assets/documents/British Smooth-Bore Artillery - English.pdf