DownNDirty
Bronze Member
Last Saturday I headed back to my favorite Colonial site to continue sifting the site of the plantation house. Previously I had found a number of British Revolutionary War relics, including uniform buttons from the 30th Regiment of Foot, 71st Regiment and Royal Provencials in addition to a large number of 18th century civilian relics.
Right out of the gate the sifter turned up more pipe stem pieces and ceramic pottery shards-and of course plenty of square nails. Here are some of the shards that I sifted out.
Many sifts later I was sorting through the debris in the sifter and noticed a round metal object about the size of a dime. After gently rubbing some of the dirt off I realized it was a pewter button with scrolling around the edge. At first I thought it was a civilian button, but then I saw numbers lightly etched in the center. It was a 71st Regiment of Foot (Fraser's Highlanders) uniform button, roughly half the size of the coat button I found on the site earlier this year.
Here are the two buttons side by side
Later in the day I was surprised to see this two-tined fork pop up in the sifter, with the entire bone handle intact
The sifter continued to produce, including two iron buckles and the tip of a skeleton key
After every second or third sift I swung the coil over the sift pile and in the hole. This produced several small relics, including this pewter piece that I think was the top of a two piece button; it has rusted iron on the back side.
Using this method I found my first "blowhole" button; it had slipped through the mesh screen.
And of course found a a few whatsits...
At the end of the day I walked the adjacent creek with the hopes of finding fossils or relics that Hurricane Matthew might have washed out. I found both-a fossilized mammal leg bone an a piece of 18th century floor tile that likely was from the plantation home.
Here are my finds for the day
The fork cleaned up nicely. Here it is before I started the process
I ran it through my electrolysis tank
Then I immersed it in microcrystalline wax that I melted on my gas grill until all of the moisture was gone
As always it was a fun day at the site; I always come home with interesting stuff from there. Can't wait to get back and do some more sifting.
Right out of the gate the sifter turned up more pipe stem pieces and ceramic pottery shards-and of course plenty of square nails. Here are some of the shards that I sifted out.
Many sifts later I was sorting through the debris in the sifter and noticed a round metal object about the size of a dime. After gently rubbing some of the dirt off I realized it was a pewter button with scrolling around the edge. At first I thought it was a civilian button, but then I saw numbers lightly etched in the center. It was a 71st Regiment of Foot (Fraser's Highlanders) uniform button, roughly half the size of the coat button I found on the site earlier this year.
Here are the two buttons side by side
Later in the day I was surprised to see this two-tined fork pop up in the sifter, with the entire bone handle intact
The sifter continued to produce, including two iron buckles and the tip of a skeleton key
After every second or third sift I swung the coil over the sift pile and in the hole. This produced several small relics, including this pewter piece that I think was the top of a two piece button; it has rusted iron on the back side.
Using this method I found my first "blowhole" button; it had slipped through the mesh screen.
And of course found a a few whatsits...
At the end of the day I walked the adjacent creek with the hopes of finding fossils or relics that Hurricane Matthew might have washed out. I found both-a fossilized mammal leg bone an a piece of 18th century floor tile that likely was from the plantation home.
Here are my finds for the day
The fork cleaned up nicely. Here it is before I started the process
I ran it through my electrolysis tank
Then I immersed it in microcrystalline wax that I melted on my gas grill until all of the moisture was gone
As always it was a fun day at the site; I always come home with interesting stuff from there. Can't wait to get back and do some more sifting.
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And all those cool pottery shards. Great stuff-- Thanks for showing us 
