8/3021 Report - Mermaid Ring Find. Book About Cannons. Testing Mystery Item.

 Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Here is a find that is different.  Occasionally you find a unique piece.  In my opinion, this is one.  I've never found another like it.

The stone looks like it might be amber but I don't know if it is.   I'll look more into that.

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I previously showed a mystery item that I found Saturday.  It is lead encased in wood.  At first I wasn't absolutely sure the metal was lead, but now I am very confident.

Saturday's Mystery Find.

When I talked about using acid to test metals, I mentioned that you can test other metals besides silver and gold with acid test kits.  I cleaned the ends of the mystery item with a little white vinegar just to get the encrustation off the metal.  I wanted to do an acid test on the metal that shows, but I was reluctant.  Finally I gave in to my curiosity and did a rubbing with the small exposed metal end.

Five Rubbings on Touchstone.

The first rubbing I did with the mystery item is marked 4 in the illustration above.  It was created by rubbing off the first layer of corroded lead.  When you compare 3 with 4, you can see that I was still not through to the clean metal.  No. 2 shows the rubbing when I got down to the clean metal.  No. 5 is a rubbing from a lead fishing sinker that I made for comparison.   No. 1 is from a copper alloy metal.  In the middle of that rubbing it looks very much like the lead rubbing, but that is the result of the flash from the camera  reflecting.   It did not look that shiny to the eye.

You can see how important it is to get through the surface layer whether it is a plated item or corrosion.  Once I got down to the clean metal, the rubbing from the mystery item looked just like the rubbing from the lead sinker.  I tested the lead streaks (no. 2 and no. 5) with both silver and 10kt gold test acid, and both items responded the same.  I am therefore now pretty confident that the mystery item inside the wood is lead.

You can also get some good information from how the metal sounds and looks when you do a rubbing.  With practice you can identify silver pretty well without the acid.

I can think of a few ways that the lead could get into the wood.  It might have been pounded or pushed in, even though it seems unlikely that lead would be pounded in like a nail or something.  It could have been poured into a drilled or hollow piece of wood, but I would imagine that would scorch or burn the wood unless there was some kind of treatment or procedure I'm not familiar with.  Or perhaps the wood grew around the item.

My impression from what I can now see is that it was intentionally shaped with a wide domed top, but I could be wrong.

For me, the mystery remains.

Here is what Joe D. said about it.

    That object DOES appear to me, to be a plug of some type, for a wooden ship, or unknown wooden object!

    Now I would think, that any wooden ship would have a variety of plugs available in many sizes made from wood, that would seal smaller holes well, once wet! But perhaps, the lead was all that was on hand at the time, or the correct size, and was "cold formed" into place! 

   I would think if it were poured into place, there would be signs of charred wood around it! But that may have worn away, who knows! I don't see any way to tell if it was sealing a fastener, or something in a hole, to protect it!

   I don't think "burning" it into a hole woHuld be as strong as pounding it in there, and therefore, not damaging the "wall" of the hole!

   Sorta in line with the way railroad spikes were designed to hold, and not split the wood!!

I'll continue to look for clues that might give an answer, and would like to hear what you think. Let me know.

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Here is a free ebook that you might enjoy if you are interested in cannons at all.  I found it while doing a little research.  Amazing book with lots of detail and illustrations.  Here is one of the illustrations to give you the idea.

And here is the link.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Artillery through the Ages - A. Manucy

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Another hot day today.

Source: nhc.noaa.gov

There is a lot of activity out there, but no immediate threats to the Treasure Coast.

Keep watching.

Pray for those in the Louisiana area.

Happy hunting,

TreasureGuide@comcast.net