Eric Willoughby
Sr. Member
- Jun 4, 2009
- 474
- 18
- Detector(s) used
- Currently Pilfered!
I'm back, and with real finds to report along with an embarrassing mistake!!
Just this past week I got permission from a friend-of-a-friend to detect his property. It was once a dairy farm that was established in the 1870's, then bought in the 1960's and used a show horse ranch until the property owner's father died. So far there are only a few finds worth reporting, but I am just getting started on this place.
My first find on this property was in the horse coral where I found a chunk of lead, I showed it to the land owner confused as to why there was this large chunk in the coral that was 12 inces deep. It turns out that it was a training weight that was put into the hooves of the show horses his father used to raise and train. The owner really wanted to keep it as a momento of his dad, which I was more than happy to hand over.
The second find was a fully intact plow blade, I could not determine the age of it, but it was definitely pre-1960 because the currently family never farmed that land, they only did show horses to make their living.
The 3rd find was the best so far, I also could not pin-point an exact age, but it was a late 1800's - early 1900's padlock, my best guess would have to put the lock around 1880-1910 range, as this was a very simple lock, whereas, I have seen locks from the 1920's that have much a more sophisticated design.
I did however make the mistake of cleaning this padlock, which has made me realize that I REALLY NEED an electrolysis tank!!
The initial cleaning went well, I had put in an entire can of BreakFree C.L.P. (cleaner lubricant preservative) gun cleaner into a plastic bowl and let the padlock soak for 2 days. This stuff works great at softening rust and removing dirt and clay, after two days alot of surface rust and grime came right off on it's own. Then came the bad ideas..... I started to use dental picks on it. The picks worked great for the nooks and crannies of the lock and did a fine job removing large chunks of rust and dirt without any damage to the lock, until I started using it on the face of it. I had at first tried to clean the face with a soft nylon brush which got the dirt off, but not the rust. The I went back to it with a pick, being ever-so-gentle in my approach, I successfully cleaned the entire back face and the front face, that is until I got down to the last dime-sized chuck of rust which easily popped off and left a nasty divot in the face with bright shiny metal exposed.....OUCH!! The stupidity then got worse.... much worse. The heavy clumps of rust that were on the padlock's bar were really thick and it encased the pivot hinge and locking portion of the lock's bar. So this being my first cleaning job ever, I try to take the dental picks to it to get it to flake off, which had zero effect. After awhile, I was taking a risk at stabbing myself with a dental pick, so I started to lightly tap on the bar with the pick, and just as I had hoped, the rust started to pop off. I was working my way along the bar nicely, feeling as proud as I can be with this clean-up job (besides from the divot on the face) until I got to the hinge part. I went to tapping on the largest chunk of rust there was on the lock and as it fell apart, one of the ears that held the hinge pin came off with it!!!! At this point I was sounding like Dustin Hoffman in the movie, Rainman......"Oh, this is bad, yup, very very bad... most definitely bad"
I was so utterly pissed with myself!
To add salt to the wound, I went today to donate these items to the local historical society and museum here in my town and got a lecture of how not to clean items that I find, and to bring them in as-is.
However, it could have been worse (I found this out today at the museum)..... I could have been the guy who just found (and damaged from cleaning it).........a sword from the Hernando De Soto expedition!!
Thankfully, I only semi-ruined a mere padlock.... I probably would have committed Hari Kari with that sword had I ruined that.
The padlock is still nice showable piece that will be on display here in the museum very soon. I did take pictures of my finds and I will be posting them on here when I get the film developed.
I also forgot to mention that a 4th item was found and is unknown, I did take pictures of that as well, but it was so caked in rust that I did leave that to the pros to restore with electrolysis, the rust was way too thick to do anything to it, more updates coming soon.
Just this past week I got permission from a friend-of-a-friend to detect his property. It was once a dairy farm that was established in the 1870's, then bought in the 1960's and used a show horse ranch until the property owner's father died. So far there are only a few finds worth reporting, but I am just getting started on this place.
My first find on this property was in the horse coral where I found a chunk of lead, I showed it to the land owner confused as to why there was this large chunk in the coral that was 12 inces deep. It turns out that it was a training weight that was put into the hooves of the show horses his father used to raise and train. The owner really wanted to keep it as a momento of his dad, which I was more than happy to hand over.
The second find was a fully intact plow blade, I could not determine the age of it, but it was definitely pre-1960 because the currently family never farmed that land, they only did show horses to make their living.
The 3rd find was the best so far, I also could not pin-point an exact age, but it was a late 1800's - early 1900's padlock, my best guess would have to put the lock around 1880-1910 range, as this was a very simple lock, whereas, I have seen locks from the 1920's that have much a more sophisticated design.
I did however make the mistake of cleaning this padlock, which has made me realize that I REALLY NEED an electrolysis tank!!
The initial cleaning went well, I had put in an entire can of BreakFree C.L.P. (cleaner lubricant preservative) gun cleaner into a plastic bowl and let the padlock soak for 2 days. This stuff works great at softening rust and removing dirt and clay, after two days alot of surface rust and grime came right off on it's own. Then came the bad ideas..... I started to use dental picks on it. The picks worked great for the nooks and crannies of the lock and did a fine job removing large chunks of rust and dirt without any damage to the lock, until I started using it on the face of it. I had at first tried to clean the face with a soft nylon brush which got the dirt off, but not the rust. The I went back to it with a pick, being ever-so-gentle in my approach, I successfully cleaned the entire back face and the front face, that is until I got down to the last dime-sized chuck of rust which easily popped off and left a nasty divot in the face with bright shiny metal exposed.....OUCH!! The stupidity then got worse.... much worse. The heavy clumps of rust that were on the padlock's bar were really thick and it encased the pivot hinge and locking portion of the lock's bar. So this being my first cleaning job ever, I try to take the dental picks to it to get it to flake off, which had zero effect. After awhile, I was taking a risk at stabbing myself with a dental pick, so I started to lightly tap on the bar with the pick, and just as I had hoped, the rust started to pop off. I was working my way along the bar nicely, feeling as proud as I can be with this clean-up job (besides from the divot on the face) until I got to the hinge part. I went to tapping on the largest chunk of rust there was on the lock and as it fell apart, one of the ears that held the hinge pin came off with it!!!! At this point I was sounding like Dustin Hoffman in the movie, Rainman......"Oh, this is bad, yup, very very bad... most definitely bad"
I was so utterly pissed with myself!
To add salt to the wound, I went today to donate these items to the local historical society and museum here in my town and got a lecture of how not to clean items that I find, and to bring them in as-is.
However, it could have been worse (I found this out today at the museum)..... I could have been the guy who just found (and damaged from cleaning it).........a sword from the Hernando De Soto expedition!!
Thankfully, I only semi-ruined a mere padlock.... I probably would have committed Hari Kari with that sword had I ruined that.
The padlock is still nice showable piece that will be on display here in the museum very soon. I did take pictures of my finds and I will be posting them on here when I get the film developed.
I also forgot to mention that a 4th item was found and is unknown, I did take pictures of that as well, but it was so caked in rust that I did leave that to the pros to restore with electrolysis, the rust was way too thick to do anything to it, more updates coming soon.
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