12/9/12 Report - Encrusted Objects Again and More

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



Musket Parts
Finds and Photo by Will R.
See more about  this below.

I never know what posts are going to be popular.  I somtimes look at the number of hits for dif, but that doesn't tell the entire story and, of course, I pay attention to what people tell me when I receive email about posts, but that doesn't tell the entire story either.  While the blog receives hundreds of hits every day, only a small number of people email me about any one post.  I figure that if some people liked a particular post, others will too, but I don't have a very good idea about which posts were most popular, so I usually just write about whatever I think is interesting at the time.

If there is a post or a few posts from the past that sticks out in your mind, let me know.

Yesterday I wrote about encrusted obects and how you can sometimes use the mold to create a copy of the original object.   I was glad to hear from Will R. who did exactly that.

Here is what Will said. 

I love your last post. I ran into a similar situation last year. I was detecting a private site on the intercoastal when I found a brass butt plate, then the side plate and one of the ramrod tubes. Then it hit me... where's the barrel? Soon I found the barrel because it had one of the ramrod tubes stuck in the EO chunk. I took it home and did as I do with most EO's and put it in a tub of fresh H2O. The next day I noticed the end of the EO was oozing sludge. I figured this was the end of the barrel. I gently flushed the end of the EO with water and then I knew I had rare opportunity. This was a perfect mold of the metal barrel that once was there. I carefuly flushed the rest of the mud and sludge out and made sure it was clear of all metal. Now here's where the fun began. I used fiberglass resin and made a perfect mold of the barrel. Here are some pics of it. You're welcome to use them if you like.

Encrusted Musket Barrel as Found.
By Will R.

Finished Copy Made From Mold.
By Will R.

Congratulations on the find, and thanks much for the story and photos Will!


It is often a good practice to soak many kinds of finds, especially those found in or near salt water, in good fresh water.  Best is distilled water or rain water that does not contain chlorines or other chemicals or pollutants.  

Salt water contains salts that will destroy iron and corrode other metals.  Soaking items in good clean water will leach the salts out of the object.   Sometimes it will take quite a while and many rinses and changes of water.

For more information on that see the following TAMU web site.

http://nautarch.tamu.edu/CRL/conservationmanual/File1.htm


Only about 15 more hunting days until Christmas.


I prefer to  do my shopping on the beach, but you can't always be sure you'll find that special gift in time.  You might be able to find it more quickly online.

As you've seen, I follow sme of the online auctions, and some of the auction sites have online stores where unsold auction items are listed along with other consigned shipwreck items.

For example, I'm sure you know about the Sedwick Coins auctions, but they also have an online store where they sell both coins and artifacts.

Here is the link.

http://www.sedwickcoins.com/price_list.htm


Still southeast winds and 2 - 4 foot surf, decreasing through early next week down to 1 - 2 feet.

Nothing much new in terms of beach detecting conditions.

Happy hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net