Is there a rock expert in the house?

[Swartzie]

I've hit rocks before running in all metal mode. Usually they run my threshold down to the negative. This rock here hit way positive. It was about eight inches down and sounded like a big hunk of iron on top of the ground. It hit hard. It even hits on my pinpointer. It signals as iron and no higher. It is very flaky, brittle and pretty light. Anyone know what it may be.

-Swartzie

 

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[BosnMate]

My guess, a clinker out of a forge fire? Kind of looks like one anyhow, but it's been a long time since I've used a forge.

 

[lostcauses]

As already stated from a forge, or volcanic.

 

[Swartzie]

There have been no industrial sites anywhere close to the site. However, there was fur trade activity in the mid 1700's.
-Swartzie

 

[Tuberale]

Doesn't have to be near an industrial area to be smelter dross.

If you have a steel rasp, try eroding a small area into the rock. Post a close-up of said "window". Looks like a lot of "pot holes" in that slag, but if the interior is solid with no pot holes, it might be something else.

 

[baywalker]

Where there any RR near there I have found a lot of slag like that in the road beds they used anything in them?

Jonnie

 

[Swartzie]

Where there any RR near there I have found a lot of slag like that in the road beds they used anything in them?

Jonnie

It was found near a river. No rr tracks, homes or anything nearby. It's near a mid 1700's indian village where I have found many artifacts dating to the time of the village. This was found several hundred yards downstream from my other finds.

-Swartzie

 

[old digger]

My guess, a clinker out of a forge fire? Kind of looks like one anyhow, but it's been a long time since I've used a forge.

! Slag?

 

[baywalker]

My guess, a clinker out of a forge fire? Kind of looks like one anyhow, but it's been a long time since I've used a forge.

! Slag?

Slag metal, the fused residue separated in the reduction of metals from thier ores. Or it could be - volcanic lava in cinder like pieces.
But I think in this instance it's from the reduction of ore. The American Indians did do some of their own smelting.

 

[Monty]

Regardless of where it was found, it is common dross or slag that is seperated from a substance containing a lot of iron. Even some coal has a lot of iron and has magnetic properties. We had several smelters around here at one time and they used the slag to fill in the road beds. Monty

 

[BosnMate]

Lewis and Clark had a portable forge and a blacksmith with them. The army had portable forges, I suspect fur trade outfits did also. Forts had permanent forges. There are all sorts of ways that clinker/slag could have got there.