Buttons and Buckles and Nails...oh my!

GrantsTomb

Tenderfoot
Jul 30, 2005
5
0
US - Southeast
Hey all-
I've been out searching for some old homestead sites that used to be in my area and have accumulated some finds over the past week. In particular I've been trying to locate the rest of this flintlock firearm, though without luck:
http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,20192.0.htm

In addition to $.72 in clad, I've found the following:

-plenty of square-headed nails
http://www.appaltree.net/aba/nails.htm
-a bolt and nut (which I'm assuming to be modern junk...unlike the nail link above, I can't find a History of the Bolt ;) )
-random metal pieces (including what seems to be a ridged "stick" of lead...for casting balls and such perhaps?)
-what looks to be a harness buckle (the elliptical ring)
-a homemade belt buckle (the tooth on it was made by wrapping a strong wire around the central post)
-a musketball (thoughts on this? would it match with a flintlock weapon?)
-two buttons
**one very small and plain...longjohn fastener? ha.
**one rather large and concave and seemingly handmade (ie- it's an imperfect circle). there's a distinct shine to spots around the rim and underside where I cleaned the grime away a bit (gilt? brass?). There's a central post on the back. Any suggestions on how I might figure out its composition? Also, I can't seem to find much on concave buttons...anyone able to give possible ID's based on these characteristics? There was a Rev. War-era fort nearby, which is why the thought of uniform decoration comes to mind...

Thanks for all the help so far!

-GrantsTomb
 

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Great finds!! The nails look like 19th century ones, along with the buttons, the bolt is newer, as it was hard to make threads back then ::)
 

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I believe that lead round ball would be fired in a flintlock weapon. It would be wrapped in a grease patch and then rammed down the barrel with a ramrod. (A patch is a piece of cloth,the right size and thickness, to make the ball fit tight in barrel. Grease is used to help ease the tight fit). It looks like a .50 caliber. I found a mold for making .36 caliber round balls. Check it out: http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,20480.0.html
 

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The lower buckle on pic.3 looks interesting: here in Germany we find similar buckles which can be dated back at least to the 17th century. Folkert
 

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Folkert, if you happen to have a picture of any of those similar buckles, I'd love to see them! It is an interesting one, to be sure. I've never seen such a rudimentary design before.

Thanks for the replies! Also, any "button specialists" out there have thoughts on this brass(?) button?
 

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The musket ball could possibly be from a flint lock but if its from the Civil War it probably from a percussion cap musket. Those are ussually found in areas of Confederate movements or where black Union regiments could've been. I have hunted an area where Gen. Wilson camped before moving on Selma to face Forrest he had a large number of black regiments and they all had muskets that fired round ball. The reason why I say it's probably not flint lock is because in the camps I've found nothing but roundballs and alot of percussion caps, one hole I found 20 caps with round balls also.
 

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