Buckle help please...

[Mainedigger]

A friend of mine found this buckle while diving off Portland Head near Fort Williams in Cape Elizabeth Maine, it is made of brass and is about 2 inches by 1/12 inches...Anyone know exactly what kind fo buckle this might be and the age?? Thanks!!

Bit of history on the fort.... http://www.capeelizabeth.com/fort/history.html

 

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[CRUSADER]

My hunch is late 18th century.

 

[Montana Jim]

It looks drop forged...

 

[Mainedigger]

It looks drop forged...

Jim...and whats that mean? I'm ignorant on forging processes so you might as well be speaking chinese when you say that...

 

[Montana Jim]

It looks drop forged...

Jim...and whats that mean? I'm ignorant on forging processes so you might as well be speaking chinese when you say that...

It means it was not Hand forged... think blacksmith pounding on a horseshoe, or a craftsman at an anvil.

Drop forged simply means there was a mold, and liquid metal was "poured" (dropped) into a mold. More ofa mass-production thing, like bullets!

It's a comment on the manufacturing process, not it's age... I have no idea on age.

 

[Mainedigger]

Jim..thanks for that!!! makes sense now that you explained it, and I agree with it as well, the buckle does not look handforged at all but more like a pour from a mold.