Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
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| Sample of 18th Century Gun Flints |
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| Different Shapes of Gun Flints |
I said the other day that you can often tell the nationality of a gun flint from the color and shape. British are usually a dark grey. The top row in the first picture has some fine examples.
The white ones in the picture are Native American.
And the amber ones on the bottom are French.
If you look at the bottom picture the second flint is the British example and the typical shape.
The last one in that row is French.
The first gun flint that I ever found was a very typical example, and looked just like what the third on in the top row shown in the first picture. I've mentioned it before, but I can remember that find like it was yesterday. Along with it was a gun cock. Also found nearby were British buttons, musket balls and grape shot.
One other thing you'll sometimes find along with a gun flint or gun cock, is a piece of lead. A piece of lead was often used to hold the fun flint in the gun lock. Some of those gun flint holders were flat and round (often British) and some were flat and square.
With my first gun flint and gun cock, I didn't find any flat lead that could have been used to hold the flint though. I didn't know to look for it back then.
The pictures above are taken from Timothy McGuire's An Identification Guide to Recovered Colonial or Revolutionary War Artifacts (first picture) and the Ivor Hume's Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America (second picture).
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| South Hutchinson Island Beach This Morning. |
The above is typical of what I saw. The beach was accumulating at most places. There were a few places that were cutting a little.
The surf seemed rougher than the 2 - 4 foot prediction, and the water had been up over the berm at some places.
There were small rocks washing up at some locations, and I also saw a shell pile that was accumulating.
From what I saw, I would say that conditions are poor. Like I said though, there were some small cuts at places and I didn't see most of the beaches.
The surf will be decreasing for the next few days.
Most of the garbage from the cargo spill was removed where I was. Somebody picked it up.
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
