4/20/12 Report - Specific Gravity, Magnets & Tigers Eye

Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.

Beach Metal Detector Find.

Nice heavy 18k gold with Tiger's Eye gem.
I think it is Tiger's Eye anyhow, but am not sure.

Here is a web site that gives the "meaning' of various gem stones if you are interested.

http://www.ibequeaththee.com/gemstone_meanings.html

There are times when a detecting site has a lot of iron junk.  I once did a post showing an inexpensive magnet on a handle that you can get to help pick up iron objects.  It can really cut down the time you spend searching for those small screws, nails and small pieces of wire and other things that can be a real pain.

And as I've explained in the past, it is often a good idea to remove trash like that because the junk can mask some very good targets.

Anyhow I made a little video to show how that works.   The magnet on a rod was purchased very inexpensively at a farm supply store.

Here is the video.

http://youtu.be/eZ2XQiljBF4

If you turn up your sound and listen carefully, you can actually hear when the magnet picks up those screws.  I clearly heard the click on both objects shown in the video.  That is handy.

When targets are very near the surface it is very easy to pick up objects like screws and nails without any digging at all.   The first target shown in the photo was very near the surface, and the second was slightly deeper in the sand.  When I don't get the object after rubbing the magnet over the surface, I work the magnet down into the sand a little, like I did in the video with the second target.

Of course when the target is deeper you'll have to dig a little and then work the magnet through the dug material or down into the hole.

The magnet can be very helpful in recovering small pieces of rusty wire that can be very hard to see, especially when in dry leaves or something like that.

The same technique works just as well on or off the beach.


A couple days ago I did a post about effect of a target's density and shape of an object in determining where it will be found on a beach.  Following up on that, Robert K. sent in links to a couple of web sites that you might want to see.  The first explains density and specific gravity.

Here it is.

http://jersey.uoregon.edu/~mstrick/AskGeoMan/geoQuerry7.html

And the second gives the specific gravity of a lot of metals. In short, specific gravity is the density of an object in relation to the specific gravity of another object, most usually water.

For example, the specific gravity of gold is 19.3, which means it is 19.3 times more dense than water.

Here is a web site that gives the specific gravity of a variety of metals.

http://www.reade.com/resources/reference-charts-particle-property-briefings/88-specific-gravity-table-metals-minerals-ceramics-substance-

You might want to look through the list and become familiar with the order of common metals.


Treasure Beaches Detecting Conditions and Forecast.

The seas are still calm.  About three foot swells.  The wind is from the south, so you won't see any real changes and certainly no real improvement in conditions.

Tomorrow the seas will be down to about one foot.  That is good for low tide and water hunting.


Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net