Ship Spike/Nails? Found

Divin

Jr. Member
Apr 10, 2010
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Primary Interest:
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Long time reader, first time poster.

Anyone have an idea what these are?
I found them about 1/5 a mile from the beach in Georgia with my new metal detector.

There is a metal rod about 2ft long
rodk.jpg


rod2bd.jpg



The nails are about 5-7 inches long, have 4 approximately equal sides and taper to a spike, the head of the nail seems to be a rounded square
nail1.jpg

nailsb.jpg


The last item looks like a piece of a iron pot, all these metals based on my metal detector and a magnet test seem to be iron.
potv.jpg


Anyone have any idea on these, specifically interested in the nails as that might give a hint to if this was from a shipwreck or
a barn door.
 

Look a lot like railroad spikes. I find them near me,as they
had rail lines running through the woods for lumber hauling.
Often wish I could find where they had any depots or camps,
as there might be artifacts at those places.HH Joe
 

Thanks Joe, I found them so close to the water I figured they might have come from a ship because I do not think there has been any logging in this area but thanks for the suggestion. These also come to a pretty sharp spike and are up to 7 inches long which when I looked at railroad spike sites (http://www.sizes.com/tools/spikes_railroad.htm)

I found these close by



And appear to have X I I carved in them


bars2.jpg


bars3.jpg


bars1a.jpg
 

Those are sounding weights.
 

The spikes aren't RR spikes - the heads on RR spikes aren't uniform like yours are.

It's possible that XII is a measurement for a sounding weight. What does the other end from the holes look like? They could also be old window weights.
 

They are just rounded off see below.

bars5.jpg


bars4.jpg
 

I found similar weights in Jupiter beach..... someone told me they were from the lifeguard cabin

Good Luck!!!
 

Hey Chagy, where you been bro? Check your website link, it takes us to a vacation site.
 

I will respong to this maybe tomorrow when I have time with some pics. Yeah, they do look like a ship pin and nails.
 

I nnow for a fact the counterweights are for windows, I've pulled them out myself and even have a few laying around here somewhere.

Anyway, I too, suspect the spikes are likely from a ship. In the lowlands of Georgia, storm surges could send a ship up creeks and rivers that far from the beach with no problem. If there is no river or creek nearby, it means nothing, the river course changes easily with the influence of Hurricanes... and so on...
Aquanut
 

:thumbsup: Aquanut has it. Window counter-weights. 12 pound for medium sized windows. Mom's house still has them and about once a year I have to replace a line or chain that holds them. Without the counter weight the window is very heavy to lift and needs a stick to hold it up. The counter-weights solved that. They are inside the framework at the sides of the wondows. A piece of rope or lite chain runs from the window, over a pulley and into the window frame.

The other spike looking items may be a large version of nails. Big timbers in large buildings took more than 10 penny nails to hold together. Could be foundation spikes where large timbers were secured. :)
 

I think it is a mid-1800's hull pin. I have seen one similar that might be from the Ayachucho.









Some of the cool stuff from last year:



^Possible shard of Borneo blackware.



^An unusual rock. May be a ballast stone from Acapulco.



^Bronze fragment, presumed ship's bell.



^Small green pebble to left of hinge, presumed jade fragment.



^Nice leaf motif on porcelin fragment, San Agustin.
 

Thanks for the input all, I made sure the nails were not copper, slightly magnetic and after a little cleaning they were most definitely not copper.
After looking around I found some window sash weights for comparison and that is what they were, thanks all =)
 

For sure. Take them out of old homes and replace new windows all the time.... Still could be some good stuff at the site!!
 

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