Shoe/knee buckle ferrous inserts

Muddyhandz

Bronze Member
Jul 1, 2012
1,226
1,955
In da bush
Detector(s) used
Fisher's 1266X, 1270X & 1280X
Primary Interest:
All Treasure Hunting
Hello history lovers, in this post I will show you the steel/iron insert buckles that a lot of colonial hunter's are missing due to bad soil conditions.
Everything I'm showing comes from late 18th century fur trade post sites, where the soil is kind and unmolested.
The fur trade is my colonial period and think this post belongs here, as these buckles were used across the continent and over the great pond.
I'm not going to show my half-dozen non-ferrous frames and the numerous frame fragments, as many colonial hunter's have way better collections.
This post is to show those advanced collectors what some of the inserts looked like, that more than likely rotted away at their sites.
This post is meant for study purposes only!
Yes, many have found COMPLETE buckles, but most have non-ferrous inserts.
I looked over dozens of posts and did not see any with ferrous inserts and if I did, they were rusted blobs!

The first batch of buckles all come from the same 18th C. French trader's cabin site.
Not sure if this was an insert or a complete ferrous (knee?) buckle ......
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This next one is completely ferrous but has silver plating on the front.....
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Not in the best condition but the whole thing came out of the ground together.
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This large ferrous insert has a bit of brass wash (upper middle) on it.....
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Front....
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This insert (found a few weeks ago) is the first of this type for me....
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It's got quite the curve to it.
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Here's a bunch of ferrous inserts......
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The one on the top left is a perfect fit for this frame I found at the same site....
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The two long prongs are curved the same way as the frame.
Here's the front of the frame....
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The rest of the finds come from other late 18th century post sites. This knee buckle? was found complete with ferrous insert......
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More from other sites.....
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A little rough but still a different style....
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This is a complete ferrous frame with globs of solder. I wonder if it was in a fire and all the non-ferrous plating melted off into a ball?
Still has a design present.....
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There's two pieces to this ferrous insert....
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Finally, I will show a non-ferrous insert from the same site. The photo doesn't show the green patina very well.
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This is just to show you the difference.

IMO, the buckle shown in Undertaker's post "1700's buckle" in this forum is the real deal and not a reproduction.
Look at the iron object in the display case below and you will see that he has kind soil conditions!
Since there are others with nice soil conditions, please post any ferrous examples that you may have found here.
I hope this post helps to understand how some buckles may have looked with ferrous inserts.
Thanks,
Dave.
 

Very nice collection. Thanks for taking the time to educate us a little bit.
 

Nice buckles. I have quite a few myself that have the iron portions remaining. Soil conditions in Ontario are pretty decent when it comes to preservation. Of course it still varies greatly from site to site.
 

Only the very top buckle is a knee buckle the rest are shoe buckles , you have a very nice collection of chapes and tongues and I agree the iron rarely holds up well enough to get a good idea how they look on the frames .
 

Thanks for the reference-quality iron chape innards, and the time it took to post it. I’ve pulled a bunch out, but unfortunately the rust was too far gone to salvage anything. Your examples are amazing.
 

You have a very nice collection of ferrous tongue and chape "innards." thanks for sharing these-you are very fortunate to be digging in soil that is so forgiving.
 

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