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Antiques! => Antique Questions Forum => Topic started by: jondar on September 29, 2016, 05:30:38 PM
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Reading the post about the wooden spoon found in the river and how it was in good shape despite being immersed in river water for years brought to mind the following. My two sons aged eight and six asked me if I would take them to the site of the Battle of Mine Creek, about sixty miles away and one morning early, one son taking his Christmas present Metal Detector, a very basic one. To my amazement they started getting "readings" and dug up a CW belt plate (buckle). Thru the morning they found some minie balls and pistol balls. All in all a good morning.
When we got home I washed the belt buckle with mild soap and rinsed it well. I was astonished that the leather pieces, the one attached to the buckle on the two studs and the other end with the holes in it for adjustment were still attached to the buckle. All other leather was gone. It was as if someone had taken a straight razor or a razor sharp knife and cut all around the peremiter of the buckle leaving the two ends on. It was unbelievable this buckle had been in the ground a hundred and fifteen or twenty years or so and the leather still in great shape. After the leather dried I ran a shoe shine brush over it several times and there was still "gloss" on it. I wrote what I'm writing here to an Antique Magazine I subscribed to and they published my letter.
I only got one answer and it was that the chemical action between the brass of the buckle and the tanning agent of the leather had kept the leather tips good all those years. All the other leather deteriorated to nothing. What say you experts?
Further I knoweth not. Thanks for any opinions.
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Now that is a fantastic story !! And fantastic finds !! Some pro`s do not have that much luck !! Is the a bullet mold from the same day ?? I have never heard of a chemical reaction like that,,but anything is possible I guess !! However if the leather was still supple I would doubt that was the reason !!
Glad you posted this story,, I enjoy reading about finds like these !!
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Seems reasonable enough to me. Great story!
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Hi Mart. Looks like my reply didn't get posted so posting again. The plate and bullets were all we found that morning. I went down there over the years and found all those things, The bullet mold is for an 1849 Colt .31 caliber revolver. The center pin was rusted shut but six months soaking in WD-40 got it open and I molded a few bullets with it. I often wonder who the guy was that used it before me.
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Don`t you wish you could have found the pistol to go with it ?? Heavens,, I wish you had found it !! I used to go metal detecting but many moons ago,, my detector went with the Ex-hubby !! Along with a lot of other things !!
Need to get another one !!
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Your sons must have been over the moon with their finds!!!
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I really like to hear stories like this. If only the pieces could talk! Nice that you can enjoy these treasures and share the great story to all who read this on the forum! Hopefully will inspire others to go "treasure hunting"!
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How cool is that? Great finds and a wonderful way to introduce kids to history!
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Raven - Yes and it lead to almost another ten years of doing it finally narrowing to Indian Wars battlefields. Mart - O.K. you wanted me to find a gun. I did. I just tried to post a picture of it and it went poof! Along with my posting. We found it at a battlefield, north U.S. not the Custer or Rosebud but a more or less famous debacle. Although we searched on private land, with permission of owner, finding relics can get sticky so would rather not mention the exact location. Was found barrel down like it had been pushed into the soil. The wooden grips had disintegrated so whittled a pair out of sycamore.
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Wow, what a display!
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Raven - Yes and it lead to almost another ten years of doing it finally narrowing to Indian Wars battlefields.
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Ooohhhhh how exciting!