Prospecting tools while metal detecting. I think the detecting fairies are trying to tell you something. I would be stocked to find all of those kind of tools. Congrats. I just found a fillet knife yesterday, nothing near as cool as that stuff.
It's pretty typical of most Mining Camps, tons of Garbage and Tin Cans galore. It's needs more visits, that's for sure! Snow and frozen ground coming tonight! I need to research it a bit, because the Farthing is kind of confusing.
The detail on the coin is out standing! Guess they closed up for the season and never came back. The awesome part, the tools are just as good and usable as when they were buried, now that's quality!
I must apologize for the coin pic, my PC is on the fritz, especially with TNet. The "tails" side of the Farthing has some crud build-up, I actually took a Sonicare toothbrush, and brushed it up a bit. And I do plan on putting the Pick-Hammer back in action.
On the bottom right with the hammerhead,that is a poll pick typically used by cousin jacks or CornishmenThe other pick heads are drifting picks.The handsteel is either a moil or gad,can't tell from the pic.
Thanks for the info, Dave. Here's another picture of the Moil or Gad, and a couple others that I found today, at another spot. Still having PC problems so it's just phone pics.
Seems like all your missing is a star bit which is used to hand drill holes for blasting.The sledge is really called a double jack in hard rock mining and a smaller one would be a single jack.Both named after the cousin jack miners from Wales.In mining and rock breaking in the old days one fellow held the long steel and the other used the hammer.therefore two cousin jacks double jacking...and a person using a smaller hammer,usually 3-5 pounds was singlejacking,as in prospecting quartz veins for gold.Experienced miners were in short supply so a fellow would tell the boss I have a cousin jack who can do that,so all the miners from Wales and even other countries were called cousin Jack's.something along those lines anyway.these tools are getting harder to find.In the old west mining camps hand drilling contests were held.
Very nice collection of hard rock mining tools, looking at the spurs on the chisel in the latest pictures it shows that it's taken a good number of blows from the hammer to obtain the mushroom cap.
It's an another time that the passion/gold fever ran heavy in the men's blood and it drove them on day after day looking for the gold.
I've found many hand steels and pick heads over the years in the California motherlode gold country and what's of interest is that most after laying in a tailings pile or the ground for 80 years or more still held their temper.A mine of any size had it's own blacksmith shop.Not many people these days no how to temper a mining tool properly.To hard and the point breaks off..to soft and the point bends......http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornish_diaspora