Posted 8 years ago
MikeinMN
(1 item)
Hello! After seeing it on YouTube, I tried Magnet Fishing in the river. In an area about 20 feet by 20 feet I pulled out about a dozen of these metal plates and hinge like things. Everything was heavily crusted in rust. I built a electrolysis tank and cooked them for about a week. I pulled the first ones out tonight. The photos look bronze colored, but they are steel. There was also a square nail, some twisted wire, etc. I probably pulled out 10 pounds of nails but left them behind. The biggest plates are about 5 inches tall. The section of river would have seen heavy riverboat traffic so I am wondering if it could have been from a sunken boat. Then again, it could have been some construction company dumping debris in the river too. What I think is a hinge in the bottom right of the picture has a metal strap that wraps around one side. If anyone knows for sure what these are, I would love to know and if you could help date them, that would be very interesting as well! Thanks for any help you can provide! UPDATE 5/22 Pulled a few more things out of the electrolysis tank. These were not in as long, so they did not clean up as well, but there is some interesting detail on these. (Pen for scale)
I don't like to make guesses; it just muddies the water (pardon the joke) but since nobody has offered anything I'll suggest that this stuff looks like some of the hardware from an old trunk.
Thanks Uncle Ron! A neighbor and I were speculating about that too. Thought maybe there were some leather straps involved for hinges or something. I pulled a few more out of the electrolysis tank tonight. Interesting how the metal strap or band goes through the slot in the plate. If i is trunk hardware, then there had to be a lot of them in the location based on the number of them I pulled out. I got one on almost every throw of the magnet. Thanks for the idea! Anyone recognize that rounded "pin" with the big eye in the end of it?
That pin looks like an ordinary, albeit quite large, cotter pin. If the shaft has a lengthwise split in it then that is what it is. I think I remember reading about a barge full of scrap metal exploding right about there. :-)