✅ SOLVED Civil war cannonball?

[Chelen]

My father recently passed away and left me with a whole collection of Civil War artifacts he'd recovered in North Carolina.
One item that I'm concerned about is what appears to be a cannon ball.

It is approximately 8 and 1/2 inches in diameter and weighs twelve pounds. It's covered in a thin layer of what looks like rust, and has a bunch of short grooves encircling it.
There are on obvious holes or areas where a mechanism may have gone, but there is an odd rust ring where it touched its display shelf for the past 5 years.

I would like to know if it is A) A Civil War cannonball, canister shot, or other artifact, and B) If it's dangerous (It's not dense enough to be solid iron).

I can post pictures if it would help identification.

Thanks in advance!

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Diving for Pleasure and Treasure - Grab it through Amazon!

[creskol]

Photographs, exact weight, and exact measurements all would be helpful.

 

[Chelen]

It's 8 and a 1/2 inches give-or-take 1/16th of an inch, and the best scale I have (Accurate to within about 1/10th of a pound) gave me that weight of 12 pounds.

I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

 

[Chelen]

Here we go. I can post with better illumination or a better background if necessary.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

As my posting-name indicates, cannonballs (and other projectiles) are my specialty. You say the ball weighs exactly 12 pounds, and its diameter is about 8.5 inches, which is the same size as a Bowling ball. That means it is absolutely not a cannonball. For example, an 8"-caliber Solid Shot cannonball weighed 65 pounds, and the 8"-caliber hollow explosive shell version weighed either 49 pounds or 44 pounds, depending on the variety.

The discrepancy between its weight and diameter mades me think you you meant its CIRCUMFERENCE (distance around the ball's equator) is 8.5 inches. Doing the math, that means its diameter (distance from one side through the ball's center to the opposite side) is about 2.7 inches. But a 2.7"-diameter ball made of cast-iron weighs a little under 3 pounds, and your ball is four times heavier than that. There is no metal (not even gold or lead) or other material which is four times heavier than iron. So, I have to assume you really did mean 8.5 inches in diameter, not circumference.

Because your 8.5"-diameter (Bowling-ball size) ball weighs only 12 pounds, there are only two possibilities.
1- It is solid but not made of metal, instead being wood or plastic or a similar lightweight material.
2- It is made of metal but its body is hollow with a VERY thin metal wall, such as 1/4-inch (or less) in thickness -- which again excludes it from being a cannonball.

 

[Chelen]

You are correct; it's 8.5 inched in diameter. A solid ball of iron that size would weigh like 70 pounds, so I was concerned that it might contain explosives. The exterior is definitely metal, and it doesn't sound hollow. I'm still curious as to the nature of the grooves, and I can supply better pictures if that would help.

I know my father found this while out relic hunting, but I can't ask him exactly where he found it anymore.

 

[Breezie]

Photographs, exact weight, and exact measurements all would be helpful.

Yeppers.

Creskol, please tell me you didn't find your new avatar? If so, give me the link, I've gotta see this. Breezie

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Thank you for the confirmation of its weight and diameter measurements. I cannot spot the "bunch of short grooves encircling it" which you mentioned in your first post. Perhaps you could make them more visible with chalk, and shoot additional photos. That might help somebody else here identify it. At this point, I can only answer the question you asked, it is definitely not any kind of cannonball, and it is not an explosive device.

 

[Chelen]

Here ya go.


Hopefully they're more visible here.

 

[Breezie]

I think it's 'witch ball,' often called gazing balls. Today most of them are glass, but years ago they were some mirrored metal as well as mirrored glass. People would put them on stands (similar to a birdbath stand) in their garden to ward away evil spirits.

Breezie

 

[Chelen]

Would that explain the low weight? It must be filled with something light.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Thank you for making and posting the additional photos. From experience in closely examining many hundreds of antique and modern-made iron/steel balls, I recognize those groove-marks as being made by a coarse file or grinder, used to smooth down the rough mold-seam on the ball after it came out of the metalcasting mold... or after the two hollow halves of the ball were welded together. The spot where there are many tiny grooves clustered close together is where an imperfection was filed/ground down. Your VERY lightweight iron/steel ball is not filled with anything -- it is completely hollow.

I still cannot identify your 8.5"-diameter 12-pound iron/steel ball, other than excluding it from being a cannonball. At that size and weight, it is a bit too heavy to be a float, and there's no way to attach it to anything. That being said, the spot where an imperfection was filed/ground down may be where it was attached to something (such as gatepost or monument), and the attachment (or weld-spot) was broken off and got smoothed down.

 

[Chelen]

Alright. Thank you all for helping to identify this ball, I really appreciate it.

 

[Breezie]

Gazing balls have been made for centuries. Here's a modern one:

10" Steel Mirror Garden Gazing Ball from Collections Etc.