8/25/14 Report - Surf Increasing Already This Morning As Christobal Heads North. Some Cuts on Treasure Coast. Reasons and How to Conduct A Pre Hunt Detector Test.

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

Tropical Storm Christbal will stay to the East of us and the rest of the United States.  It looks like it will be a fish storm now, but it looks like the Treasure Coast will still get a four or five foot surf by Wednesday.  The surf has begun to increase (Monday morning).

Monday morning there were also some one-foot cuts along the Treasure Coast.  Unfortunately those scattered cuts are in sand that has piled up in the past few weeks.  That will not change my beach conditions rating yet - still poor.  It, however, might cause a change in conditions if things keep going in the same direction.

There is also a second disturbance coming off of Africa.

Source of maps: www.nhc.noaa.gov

Looks like the Atlantic is becoming more lively.

Both of the above weather maps are from www.nhc.noo.gov.


Sometimes detectors will fool you.   One will have a grand reputation for depth and excellance but will be outperformed by a cheaper detector or a detector with a poor reputation.   The thing is that there are a lot of factors that will affect the performance and depth that a detector gets on a specific target.  That is a big reason why I explained how to really test a detector yesterday.

You have to be specific about the type of target and the environment.  You also have to be specific about the operating characteristics of the detector.  The detectors performance will also be affected by your settings and how you use it.

One important factor is your sweep speed.  Sweeping either too fast or too slow can cause loss of depth and good targets.  So how do you know how fast to sweep?

I've discussed this in the past but it is worth mentioning again.  Put the type of target on the ground (preferable the type of ground where you expect to hunt) and sweep your coil over the object.  Listen to the signal.   Sweep over it again, this time slower.  Did the signal get louder or less loud?  If it got louder, that tells you that you were sweeping too fast to begin with.  Vary the sweep speed over the object until you get the loudest most distinct signal.  Maintain a constant distance between the coil and object on each attempt.

That is how you can find the near optimal sweep speed for you detector in the environment you plan to work.   The optimal sweep speed can be different for dry land and for wet salt sand, for example.  The best idea is to do your tests where you plan to hunt.

I like the practice of testing my detector each time before I begin a hunt.  It takes only a few seconds to get your sweep speed right.   Try to develop muscle memory for the best sweep speed for each detector.

I think it is natural to get in a hurry and go to fast.

Also test your settings.  Adjust your settings to produce the loudest signal on the type of object you want to find.

Target specificity is important.  Don't test your detector on an object you don't much care about.  Don't use a zinc penny for the test unless that is what you most want to find.

Testing your settings before you get far into your hunt can save a lot of wasted time.  It is easy enough for knobs to get turned between hunts.  It is a big waste of time to spend your first half hour with maximum discrimination simply because you failed to check the settings.  Yes you can simply look at the knobs, but a lot can be accomplished quickly by simply doing a test on an appropriate test object before your hunt.   I can remember times in the distant past when I started my hunt and spent quite a few minutes before discovering an incorrect setting and had to go back and cover the same ground with the corrected settings.  If you have a lot of electromagnetic or radio interference, you might choose to lower the sensitivity setting.

One type of location that can be tough to detect well is around electric lines, underground cables or radio transmissions.  Some detectors will be much more affected by those things than others.  A detector that is not the best in one environment can be the best choice in another.

Coils are different too.  A Dual Surf PI has a larger coil than an Excalibur, but the Excalibur coil gives you more depth under the entire coil than the PI.  The area of maximum depth is only obtained under a relatively small part of the PI coil.  That means that you should overlap sweeps more when using the PI.  You can quickly test coil coverage while doing a sweep speed test.

While doing a sweep speed test, move the coil front to back between sweeps.  You might notice that some parts of the coil give a much louder signal than others.  Check to see where your maximum sensitivity is located under the coil.  You will learn how broad your maximum detection area is and where under the coil it is located.

Just the other day, I tested a Surf PI, Excalibur and ACE 250 on an inland area having a lot of electrical interference.   I used a thin gold ring as my test target.  The Excal gave a good loud signal over the ring.  The 250 did almost as well.  The PI barely gave a signal under those conditions, and only when the ring was located under a small part of the coil and when the coil was moved at a near perfect sweep speed.  The results were remarkable enough that it surprised me.

That is just one example.  Do not over-generalize from that simple test.  In some environments the PI can perform better than the other detectors.  My point is that different detectors will perform differently in different environments, on different types of objects, but the response will also depend upon your settings and sweep speed.

On most tests I will optimize my settings for the loudest and most distinct signal.  In the above test, I  made a variety of adjustments, particularly on the PI to see if I could improve the results.

Once again I want to emphasize the value of testing your detector or detectors properly.  You'll get best results when you spend a lot of time testing so that you really know your detector.


Watch for the higher surf the next couple of days.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

8/24/14 Report - New Tropical Storm Christobal Formed. Predicted Track Better Defined. Detector Reviews & How To Really Evaluate a Detector.

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

Predicted Track of Christobal
Source: www.nhc.noaa.gov

Yesterday I was doing something that I normally don't do.  I was reading reviews of various metal detectors.  I'm not in the habit of doing that because I prefer to do my own tests, which I conduct in my own way.

It is truly remarkable how much people disagree about detectors.  Some people will swear by a particular detector, while others will not have anything good to say about the same detector.  It is really hard to draw any conclusions from the online reviews.

I kept reading things like the Fisher 1280 didn't work in salt water or that it didn't find gold, for example.  Those are things that I know from vast personal  experience are not true.

I could only wonder how people could arrive at a conclusions like that.  It made me think that the reviews were either posted by people having a motive or bias (maybe they worked for a particular company or sold that type of detector), or they did not know how to really conduct a meaningful test.  A third possibility, which I have a hard time accepting, is that quality control is so poor that the detector manufacturers ship detectors that vary a lot in quality and capability.

From what I've seen written, I tend to believe that the second is the most likely.  It seems that people do not know how to conduct meaningful tests or do not know how to evaluate a detector, maybe because they don't really know how to use it well.

The second detector that I ever owned, and the first underwater detector that I owned was a Fisher 1280.  That was over twenty years or more ago, and I dug plenty of gold with that detector on salt water beaches and in the water.  That was an older version.  I can't believe that the ones Fisher makes today are not as good.   That is why I know that some of the reports that I read about that detector are baloney.   My 1280 found big gold and small gold in very good quantities over years of use.

When I first used the 1280 I only found medium to large gold rings with it.  In fact I remember concluding that men must lose a lot more rings than women.   However when I learned to turn down the discrimination, I started to find as many small gold rings as large gold rings.   The incorrect conclusion that I reached earlier was because of how I used the detector, not because of the detector's limitations.

You can not pay too much attention to most of the detector reviews.  I did not find one review that was based upon a really good and thorough test.   Usually people go out and use a detector a while and give their impressions.  Usually their impressions are formed before they have really learned how to use the detector or without a fair comparison with other detectors.

If you really want to compare the performance of two detectors, test them both on the same targets under field conditions.  Don't, however, use valuable test targets under field conditions that are so challenging that you might lose the test target. 

I know you can't carry two detectors around at the same time, but have someone else carry the second one.  You simply can't conduct a fair test without testing two detectors on the same targets under field conditions.

The next best thing is to take the two detectors you want to compare to the beach or wherever you plan to hunt, and also take a variety of test targets.   Test the detectors on the same targets in the same environment. 

Using test targets that you take with you is not the ideal.   Test targets will not be exactly the same as targets that have been buried by nature over time even if you do carefully bury them.  In my opinion you will do just as well to lay the test targets on the ground as to bury them because when you dig a hole and bury a test target, the sand or dirt surrounding the object is not compact like it would be if it was buried by nature and if there was time for leaching and the halo effect to form.

Even though using your own test targets is not the ideal it provides a good first step to begin with.  It provides the advantage of allowing you to select the type of targets that you are most interested in and the type of environment you plan to hunt.

If you want to find gold jewelry, don't test your detector with coins.  Use the types of targets you really want to find.

Here is the ideal.   Take the two detectors to be compared to the type of place you want to hunt.  If you want to compare them on the beach, do that, but it you want to know how they will work in the water or on dry land, test them there.

This will take two detectorists, or at least one detectorist and one person to carry the second detector.  When a signal is received, don't dig the target before switching detectors and testing how the second detector responds to the very same target under exactly the same circumstances.   After carefully listening to the signals produced by both detectors without disturbing the target, adjust the settings on both detectors to maximize the signal on the target.

The detector's settings are very important.  If they aren't maximized, your test will not reveal what the detector could do if it was being operated optimally.  That means you will be comparing how well you are using the detectors, not the detectors' capabilities.

You must know enough about the detectors to use them well for the types of targets that you want to find.  Otherwise the test is meaningless.

I believe that many of the reviews are not worth reading simply because the detectorist has not learned how to use the detector very well. 

When I tested the ACE 250 just out of the box, I was not testing it against another detector to see how it compared.  I was not trying to see if it was the best detector, only if it would work well enough to find things.   It passed that test.  I have not yet tested it on a beach and have not compared it with other detectors in a salt water environment.  Some day I'll do that.

You can't go out one day and compare what you find with one detector one day with what you find with another detector on another.  There are too many factors that are not controlled, including different targets, different ground conditions, etc.

How you use a detector is as important as the detector you use.   A person who knows how to use a lower quality detector can out-perform a person that does not know how to use a better detector.   Let me repeat - how you use your detector is a very big factor.  Don't blame your detector if you aren't using it well.

In the past I've described procedures that will help you learn to use your detector.  Test it on various types of targets.  See how changing the settings affects how it reacts to those targets.  Change your sweep speed and observe the results.  And remember, you have to put your coil over a good target before you can detect it.  Knowing where to search is very important too.

My main point today is that you can't really compare two detectors by reading the reviews that you find online.  If you really want to compare two detectors, you will need a more thorough and meaningful test than what you are likely to find online.



Well, we have a new tropical storm.  It is named Christobal.  With the forming of the storm we also got a better prediction of the track it will take.

As you can see they expect Christobal to remain to the east of the Bahamas.   That means we will not get the full force.  As a result, the surf predictions for the Treasure Coast have been slightly reduced from yesterday.  The peak surf expected for the Treasure Coast Tuesday and Wednesday is now more like four feet.  That is not normally enough to increase my beach conditions rating, but could result in a small rating change if other factors such as the angle of the wind and waves are good.

I'm happy for any increase in surf.  I'd like to see a little sand get stirred up and perhaps even a dip or two created.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

8/23/14 Report - Up To Six Foot Surf Predicted For Next Week! Nice Lead Ingot Find. How To Pick Up A Little Extra Cash While Detecting.

Wrutten by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.BlogSpot.com.

Lead Ingot Found by William M.
Photo by William

Yesterday I showed a number of finds made by William M.

Here is one more.  This lead ingot says at the top, ANCO Lead Co.  It has an A on the second circle and N on the third.

The Anco Lead Corporation is no longer active.  It began on Nov. 2, 1965.  I don't know when it folded.

There were a number of smaller lead objects dug by William at the same location, including some FEC seals.

Lead is selling for around 55 cents per pound at recycling centers.

The ingot is too interesting as an artifact to scrap.


If you pick up a lot of the trash you dig while detecting the scrap value can add up quicker than you might think.

Think of all the lead sinkers you have dug.  I've dug buckets of them.  If you keep them rather than toss them to find again another day, you can turn them into cash.  The same goes for other trash metals such as copper and aluminum.

Those metal finds can often be worth more than the few clad coins that you find.  Not only will you be making a little money, but you'll also be cleaning up the beach, which is good for detectorists and non-detectorists alike.  You'll also be saving energy and resources.  Every little bit helps.

Here is a web site with some fun facts about recycling.

Here is a brief taste of what it offers.

A used aluminum can is recycled and back on the grocery shelf as a new can, in as little as 60 days. That's closed loop recycling at its finest! Used aluminum beverage cans are the most recycled item in the U.S., but other types of aluminum, such as siding, gutters, car components, storm window frames, and lawn furniture can also be recycled.
Recycling one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hours -- or the equivalent of a half a gallon of gasoline.
Those and many many more facts come from the following web site.

http://www.recycling-revolution.com/recycling-facts.html

And if you want prices for scrap material, here is a good list.

http://rockawayrecycling.com/

If you have an old computer and don't know what to do with it, you can get money for recycling it.

There a lot of things you can get a little money for if you do not just send it to the landfill.

Check out the site.


Finally!  If the surfing web sites are correct, we'll be getting some nice surf action next week.

A 4 - 7 foot surf is predicted for Tuesday and 5 - 7 is predicted for Wednesday on the Treasure Coast.
That is up where there is a real possibility that we could get some significant improvement in beach detecting conditions.

I generally hope for at least a 6 to 8 foot surf for a very good chance of improved conditions, although it can happen with less.

I haven't been giving my beach conditions rating much lately due to the consistently poor conditions all summer, so I might need to remind you that my Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Conditions Rating Scale is a five point scale that goes from 1 to 5.  1 indicates poor conditions such as those we've been having, in which there is very little chance of finding older objects on the beach, to 5 which indicates excellent beach detecting conditions.   Level five conditions mostly happened during or immediately after a big storm or hurricane.

As I always remind, the rating scale starts with a 1 instead of a 0 because there is always some very small chance that something will pop up on a beach, even under the poorest conditions.  We saw an example of that just a few days ago.

We've had a few level three beach conditions ratings during the past couple of years, such as after Sandy, when a good number of silver cobs were found by detectorists on the beach.  I conducted a survey and posted those survey results back then.

I reported on those poll results back in my 11/29/13 post.  Here is a sample of the conclusions, which found that 15 of the 100 poll respondents found a cob back then.'

My highest Treasure Coast Treasure Beach Detecting Conditions rating during November was a 3. If you generalize from the results of this poll, your chances of finding a cob or treasure coin is something close to 15% when I issue a 3 rating on the scale.  And of course a 2 rating would indicate your chances are somewhat less -  maybe something more like 1 in 5 or 10 or somewhere in between.  I'll continue to try to better calibrate my scale.  These numbers do help.

You might want to go back and read that post.  The above is only a very small part of it.

Source: www.nhc.noaa.gov

This disturbance now has an 80 percent chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours.

No telling where it will go at this point, but Florida is one possibility.

A hurricane isn't necessary to improve beach conditions.  As I mentioned above, the surf is expected to increase up to seven feet.  That can certainly stir things up on the beach, depending upon the direction of the wind and waves.

That is the most encouraging thing I've been able to post for a while.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net

8/22/14 Report - Hunted Treasure Coast Inland Site Very Productive. 1924 Quarter. FEC Seals. Possible Storm and Increased Surf Heading Our Way.

Written by the Treasureguide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.BlogSpot.com.



Lots of Finds By William M.
Photo by William M.

 

 
 
 
 
 

William M. has been doing a lot of digging at a land site.

Just look at this picture.

Here is what William said.

I put in a very long day at a new to me..land site.

Several people told me it had been hunted many times... I couldn't tell.

Dug ALOT... wound up with a 1942 Washington.. A 1924 SLQ and several F.E.C. bale seals as well as a flat lead piece stamped J on one side and B on the other??

A few wheat pennies ... many many other targets.

Also..a huge lead object under roots of a large tree what I saw the tops of these I thought for sure I had found jars filled with coins boy was that a lot of work.
happy hunting and thank you



1924 Quarter

FEC Seals, Lead Item & Some Coins



 



Washington Silver Quarter.

These finds and photos are all by William M.

Congrats William!

That is a lot of work.

Don't give up on a site just because you think it has already been detected.

In fact, I recommend covering a site more than once if it is promising at all.

I did a post once of FEC seals.   You can use the search box if you want to go back and see that.

Thanks for sharing William.   I bet a lot of people have been sitting around thinking there is no place worth hunting.  

One factor in William's success is that he obviously didn't use much if any discrimination. 

By the way, I've been seeing some older and very unusual pull tabs this year for some reason.  I didn't know there were so many varieties.  Almost made me think of starting a pull tab collection. 

Source: www.nhc.noaa.gov

The tropical disturbance that I've been watching has become a little more promising.  It has not become a storm yet but now has a sixty percent chance in the next 48 hours.

You can see that it has turned to the north.

If it becomes a named storm, it will be Christobal.

If you check the surfing web sites, the surf will begin increasing a little by Sunday and will get up to 3 or 4 feet by Tuesday.

We haven't had that much surf in months.

I've been making needed repairs to some of my equipment.  I wish they would make things more sturdy.



Some new Mayan cities have been discovered.  Good article.

http://news.discovery.com/history/archaeology/three-ancient-maya-cities-found-in-jungle-140815.htm



On the Treasure Coast I'm waiting for the sand to get stirred up a little.   I'll be glad to see any movement of sand.  It has been so looong.

I showed the other day that there were a few spots where things were uncovered.  Hard to find them though. 

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.

8/21/14 Report - Possible Storm Heading Our Way. Metal Awl Dating Back Thousands Of Years Found.

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

Tropical Disturbance Just East of the West Indies.

This disturbance has about a 50% chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours. 

One computer model predicts that it will hit South Florida, however the computer models aren't very accurate before you have a developed storm.  Note that at this point there is only a 50% chance of development in the next couple of days.

If it does develop, it will have a C name.  I heard it, but forgot what it will be.

My guess is that it is a long shot for us.   Still, worth watching.


The oldest metal object ever found in the Middle East is a recently found copper awl dating to around 5200  to 4600 BCE.

http://www.newswise.com/articles/the-oldest-metal-object-found-to-date-in-the-middle-east2


Sea mammals brought tuberculosis from Africa to the New World, not Europeans.   That is what this article suggests, though they don't go there.

https://asunews.asu.edu/20140819-tuberculosis-research-seals-sea-lions


My most read post of June 2014 was the following.

6/29/14 Report - National Archives For Research, Detecting Military Shells With a 2-Box Detector, Getting To More Remote Beaches, & US Religious Shrine


A massive tomb was found in Greece

http://www.aol.com/article/2014/08/13/massive-tomb-unearthed-in-greece/20946363/

http://archaeology.org/news/2428-140813-tomb-greece-hellenistic-ancient-grave-Macedonian

When such huge discoveries are still being made, you know there is a lot out there remaining to be discovered.


Just a short post today.  A lot of people liked yesterdays post.  It  showed the development and anatomy of a recent coin hole.  Take a look if you haven't seen it.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net

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8/20/14 Report - Illustration Of The Development Of A Coin Hole. Five Metal Detector Annoyances. Okeechobee Battlefield. Indian Scout. Two Tropical Disturbances.

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

Diagram Of Coin Hole Found Yesterday

My camera batteries were dead yesterday when I wanted to take a picture of the coin hole that I was detecting.  I made this simple sketch to try to show the situation.

The coin hole was evidently relatively fresh.  You could tell that it had not be disturbed by man or nature since it was created.   I can also tell that the conditions that created it were short-lived. 

First I noticed the dune cliff and where it had been undercut.  Good sign!

When a dune face is undercut, the material above the undercut will fall down to the bottom of the cliff where it will be washed down the slope of the beach.  The sand will be washed farther and faster, leaving a spread of coins behind.

Around the Treasure Coast 18th Century items are usually a foot or two deep in the dunes.

That means those older things will wash out when the cliff face is down around two feet.

Cliffs that are less than a foot high, will often, but not always, produce only modern items.  There is not any guarantee that larger cliffs will yield older items.  It depends on what remains in the area from different time periods.

I'm talking here about a situation where the items are being washed out of the dunes, not when items are being washed up from the water.

Always look at a dune cliff face to see if you can see evidence of different labels and see if there are any signs of the different time periods.

In this case there was a very clear pattern showing how the coins washed out of the dunes.

This is the type of detecting that I really like.  You can quickly identify the promising area, and you can quickly identify the source and boundaries of the coin hole.

Sometimes a coin hole will be near the foot of the cliff and other times farther away.

Items will get sorted out by the moving water to some extent, but when the items wash out is another factor that will determine where they end up.

There was a deep drop-off and strong current running in front of this beach.  Objects that made it into the water will disappear into deeper water as the strong currents continue to take sand away.

Not too far along the beach in the direction of the current, the sand was being dropped off.  Light objects were on top of the accumulating sand pile in the water in that direction.   Some were undoubtedly come from the dunes and washed down.

If you find a pile like that you can sometimes back track it to the source where you might find the better objects.

That is one reason I don't like discrimination.  The junk often tells you something important.

This is the kind of area that you have to go over a few times to make sure you get everything.

You'll hear more subtle signals after you've removed the bigger louder targets.

Finds from various time periods will be found together because when the cliff is undercut, objects from all time periods above the undercut will fall to the foot of the dune before being washed down the slope.



Five things about metal detectors that annoy me.

1.  Parts that break with nothing other than normal usage.
2.  Parts that freeze up unless you constantly maintain them.
3.  Difficult routine maintenance such as changing batteries.
4.  Knobs, switches and adjustments that can not easily manipulated while detecting.
5.  Settings that do not provide clear feedback concerning the position or setting selected.

Yesterday I showed how I reinforced my detector rod stem.


Somebody reported seeing detectorists detecting  a battlefield in Okeechobee.  I don't know if that was a permitted hunt with archaeologists or on private property or what.   In any case, here is what I said in a previous post.

Just a little west of the Treasure Coast is the field where the Battle of Okeechobee took place in 1837. 

The troops of Zachary Taylor took a beating there as the Seminoles out-witted Taylor and the Missouri Volunteers.

The battlefield is threatened by development and a State Park has been created to preserve the area.

Here is a link to learn more about the battle of Okeechobee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lake_Okeechobee



That reminds me of Lewis Wetzel, Indian scout from the 18th Century that scouted around Wheeling, Virginia and the brother of one of my ancestors.   It didn't become West Virginia until the the Civil War.

He was known by whites and Indians alike for the fact that he could load his musket while running.

That cost the lives of numerous Indians who thought that after firing one shot, he wouldn't be shooting again. 

He would shoot one, then reload while running, and then fire again, repeating until the pursuers were either killed or thought better of following.

His notched rifle is said to be in a museum in Charleston WV.

There are some interesting books about his life and adventures.


We still have two disturbances in the Atlantic.  They seem to be staying south.  The one near South America has a thirty percent chance of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours.


Source: www.nhc.noaa.gov

 

On the Treasure Coast the same one-foot surf prevails.   They are harder to find, but there are still some interesting places to hunt despite the poor beach conditions that we've had for so long.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@Comcast.net

8/19/14 Report - Three Surprises. One Dense Coin Hole. Brass Button Found. How To Reinforce Metal Detector Rod Stem.

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

Concave Brass Button Found This Morning

I went out this morning to do a little detecting near low tide and had a couple of surprises.  The first was that my camera battery was dead.  That turned out to be especially disappointing because of the next surprise.

I was digging a target at the waterline while facing the beach when I heard something behind me.  I turned around a saw an unusually large manatee not much more than five yards behind me.  The beach dropped off very steeply there.  Anyhow I wish I had my camera working at that point.

I guess I need to check more than my detector before going out.  I did check my detector but not my camera.

I spent most of my time in an area not much bigger than ten square yards.  The targets were dense.  Probably near fifty coins and things in that small area.  Mostly modern coins.

 I like those kinds of areas even if most targets are nothing special.  When they are densely packed, there will usually be at least one or two better things.

I didn't get a picture because of the above mentioned reason, but I'll try to draw a diagram to show what it was like and how the targets were distributed.  I'll try to do that tomorrow.  It is instructive.

That was the kind of area that you can spot a mile away (exaggeration), and the kind of place that I would never pass up.

There was very little trash in that area. 

This area is seldom detected.  I don't think I've ever seen anyone else detect there over the years.



Whites detectors seem to have some problems with the plastic parts.  I don't know if they suffer from the Florida heat or what, but I've had a few broken plastic parts that received no unusual amount of stress.

The plastic part that connects one ear phone to the ear phone holder broke.   And two different lower rod stems broke. 

Working in the water does put more stress on a detector.  

In the old days I broke about six arm rests on an old Fisher Aquanaut before I got a metal one to replace the weak plastic ones. 

But since two Whites lower rod stems broke on me, that seems to be a weakness, and so I decided to reinforce that area.

Whites Reinforced Lower Rod Stem.

The above picture shows the reinforced lower rod assembly.   A section of pvc pipe that would not fit over the entire lower stem without slitting was cut to a short length, and then the section was slit along the length of the section, and then slipped on over the lower stem.  The slit along the section of pipe allowed the short section to open just enough so that it would fit very tightly on the stem.   That should provide additional strength so that the stem will not break again.

The lines drawn on the pvc section shows the larger rod on the left, which the smaller diameter stem fits into.  Two pins go through both the larger rod and stem to hold the stem in place.

On the two breaks that I've seen, the stem broke at the lower of the two pins where the red line is drawn on the illustration.

We'll see if this reinforcement keeps the new rod stem from breaking.  I think it will.


One more surprise.  Treasure Coast conditions remain poor.  That is no surprise.  The button shown above was found.  That is a surprise, given the poor conditions.

It was found where old things have not been found before even though a lot of modern things have been found there.

The button is 2 centimeters in diameter, and is in unusually good condition, and appears to have a good bit of remaining gilt.  It must have been buried safely for a long time.   Unfortunately there is no back mark or anything to date or identify it.

The best web site about old Spanish military artifacts that I know of is the one listed in my rerference list.  

If you've never looked at it, you should.  The button information is absolutely great.

Here is a link to see similar buttons.

http://www.artifacts.org/Early%20Buttons.htm

The above button looks something like the example labeled Presidio.

Source: www.nhc.noaa.gove

On the Treasure Coast we still have a one-foot surf, and will for a while.

There are, however, two weather systems in the Atlantic to watch.  The one nearest us has a 30% of becoming a cyclone in the next 48 hours.

Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@Comcast.net