Cannon Ball?

[63cagedfalcon]

Received this with a WW1 grouping. Seller said it came out of the garden, he is trying to contact original owner as you read.

To heavy for for my 5# scale but got it to weigh on a bathroom scale once at 7#. It is just shy of 3 inches. Seems to have a lead spot, lightly rubbed with fingernail & left a mark. Are these a casting marks? Looks like one of them is a "1".

I did some more measuring and the "high" casting mark measures at 2.8870in, so it is lower but raised if that makes sense.

I did find the chart with sizes & weights before posting here but weight wasn't accurate on my end.

These are pics of high point silhouette and lead area.

I don't believe it is a fence top.

What is it?

 

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[Retired Sarge]

Is the deformed area and the light colored area 180 degrees from each other? If the weight to size ratio isn't within known Cannon Shot, my guess would be a decorative ball on a gate or such or a gate counter-weight.

 

[Truth]

I’m curious knowing how much it weighs I found my first cannonball a month ago such a great feeling. Mine had a hard shell of rust around it and then when I did electrologist it was breaking off like an egg. It was a foot and a half deep

 

[63cagedfalcon]

Is the deformed area and the light colored area 180 degrees from each other? If the weight to size ratio isn't within known Cannon Shot, my guess would be a decorative ball on a gate or such or a gate counter-weight.

I just assumed they were 180⁰ off but as you see in pic where my fingers touch the deformed & lead plug areas.

Also used a stiff brush on the deformed area & it looks like a # 7 or an "L" , does that change anything?

 

[Truth]

You got to get a hold of Thecannonballguy He’ll know in two seconds

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

63cagedfalcon wrote about his unidentified ball:
> To heavy for for my 5# scale but got it to weigh on a bathroom scale once at 7#. It is just shy of 3 inches.
> Seems to have a lead spot, lightly rubbed with fingernail & left a mark.

The way we Historical Artillery projectile collectors determine with CERTAINTY whether or not an iron ball is a cannonball or grapeshot is, we super-precisely measure the ball's diameter AND weight... then compare those measurements with the super-precise size specifications for Artillery balls in the US Ordnance Manual Of 1861. (That data in the Ord. Manual is called the "Shot Tables.")
Cannon bore, shot, and shell diameters for smoothbore guns
Also, here's a very-detailed educational article (with helpful photos) I co-wrote to help diggers & collectors figure out with certainty whether they've got an Artillery ball or a Civilian-usage ball:
SolidShotEssentialsMod

Your ball's diameter is "close" to the diameter of a Colonial Era 3-Pounder caliber cannonball. However, as its name implies, a 3-Pounder ball weighs almost exactly 3 pounds. (According to the final chart at the end of the Shot Tables in the 1861 Ordnance Manual, a solid cast-iron ball which weighs exactly 3.0 pounds is precisely 2.819-inches in diameter.) But your same-size-as-a-3-pounder ball weighs SEVEN pounds.. which is more than twice as much as a 3"-diameter solid iron ball should weigh. The only way that's possible is, your iron ball was manufactured as a hollow ball and then got filled with lead. That is proven by the lead-filled hole you see on your ball. This absolutely excludes it from being an Artillery ball. It is most likely some kind of Counterweight. The purpose of being hollow and filled with lead is to allow you to make the Counterweight ball weigh very-exactly the weight you want by pouring just the right amount of molten lead into it.

 

[Truth]

^^^Is he not the best^^^

 

[63cagedfalcon]

63cagedfalcon wrote about his unidentified ball:
> To heavy for for my 5# scale but got it to weigh on a bathroom scale once at 7#. It is just shy of 3 inches.
> Seems to have a lead spot, lightly rubbed with fingernail & left a mark.

The way we Historical Artillery projectile collectors determine with CERTAINTY whether or not an iron ball is a cannonball or grapeshot is, we super-precisely measure the ball's diameter AND weight... then compare those measurements with the super-precise size specifications for Artillery balls in the US Ordnance Manual Of 1861. (That data in the Ord. Manual is called the "Shot Tables.")
Cannon bore, shot, and shell diameters for smoothbore guns
Also, here's a very-detailed educational article (with helpful photos) I co-wrote to help diggers & collectors figure out with certainty whether they've got an Artillery ball or a Civilian-usage ball:
SolidShotEssentialsMod

Your ball's diameter is "close" to the diameter of a Colonial Era 3-Pounder caliber cannonball. However, as its name implies, a 3-Pounder ball weighs almost exactly 3 pounds. (According to the final chart at the end of the Shot Tables in the 1861 Ordnance Manual, a solid cast-iron ball which weighs exactly 3.0 pounds is precisely 2.819-inches in diameter.) But your same-size-as-a-3-pounder ball weighs SEVEN pounds.. which is more than twice as much as a 3"-diameter solid iron ball should weigh. The only way that's possible is, your iron ball was manufactured as a hollow ball and then got filled with lead. That is proven by the lead-filled hole you see on your ball. This absolutely excludes it from being an Artillery ball. It is most likely some kind of Counterweight. The purpose of being hollow and filled with lead is to allow you to make the Counterweight ball weigh very-exactly the weight you want by pouring just the right amount of molten lead into it.

Pete,

Thank you for the full description of why it isn't a cannonball. I am learning all of the time from you & many others on this site.

Regards Paul