Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Rusted Metal Picked Up By Magnet. |
A magent can be a very useful tool for the serious detectorist. A magnet can be used in a variety of ways.
As you probably know, I've been working an inland site that has a lot of buried rusty metal. There are areas where square feet or square yards are covered by small bits of rusty iron. Some of it as small as the thinnest needles. The detector indicates targets covering the entire area, but when you dig it up and search through the sand, leaves and small twigs, you see nothing. That is when the magnet comes in handy. You stick it in the sand, move it around a little and then take it out and see tens or hundreds of small bits of rust stuck to the magnet.
There were times when I picked up many more pieces of rust with the magnet than what is shown in the above photo. There were times when the entire surface of the magnet was covered with small needles of rust radiating out from the center of the magnet.
Shown below is an area where a large number of spikes, bolts and things were already removed, but the detector was still indicating a lot of metal remaining in the ground. That is where I stuck the magnet in and moved it around. The results of doing that once is shown above. I did that many times to clear this ground so it could be detected without the noise of all those small bits of iron.
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| Dug Ground Where Larger Items Were Removed But Small Rust Remained. |
The magnet has also been very helpful in finding nails and things in the leafy twiggy sand. It saves a lot of time and is easier than trying to pinpoint such small items.
Below are just a couple of my posts that describe how to use magnets.
You might be surprised to learn that a magnet can also be used to discover silver coins even if the magnet won't pick up the silver coins.
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The current Sedwick auction will conclude Monday. That session offers a wide variety of lots, including many Mexico, Potosi and Lima cobs; pillar dollars, ancient coins, artifacts and mounted coins.
I thought some of you might benefit from seeing these three iron conserved Atocha spikes that already have a bid of $300. They are lot 1920 in the auction.
Here is the link.
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Here is the latest beach report from JamminJack.