Well there's your problem!

I just came home from a 2 week vacation in Kragerø and London. Sadly, I forgot to bring the metal detector to Kragerø, so it will have to wait for next year, when I'm going to stay there for a month. I did see some very interesting places on the island, though. A tall wall which seemed to have been some kind of road, and some very very deep mines which would be awesome to explore, but somehow I feel it might be too dangerous (excellent for throwing rocks into though).

England was very nice, and some of the days it was actually quite hot (about 17c). Sadly, I can't say the same for Norway. When I got back, it had gotten a lot colder, and the earth is beginning to freeze, making it very hard to dig some places. Not to mention all the leaves that would probably distort some of the signals.


So I guess this marks the end for metal detecting this season. Too bad I only got about a month to actually try it, but it was enough to at least find some interesting things.

I will be back as soon as winter has passed. When that happends, I will probably search some more open grassy areas.

~Quantonium

More bullets

Not much turned up today either.. I found some more old nails, some small bullets. I did however find quite a big bullet, which was pretty nice. I don't know what caliber it is, but as you see on the picture, it looks like a relatively normal hunting bullet.


Anyway, I'm finally done with the woods, and will have to find a new place to search. I have a number of options, so it won't be that hard to find a good spot. I'm hoping to find some more coins, since that's usually the most exciting thing to find, and since I haven't found any in a long time.

Ye olde axe!

I continued my way up the forest path today, but found very little. It seems it's not as much things of interest in this upper part of the forest as I hoped for. I'm soon finished with the whole woods though, so after that I have a lot of interesting places to visit.

Anyway, as I was searching, I thought I found a coin. It had a strong signal, and did'nt seem deep in the ground at all. I was very wrong though, for I had to dig about 15cm (6"), and what I found was quite unexpected. An axe! I have no idea how old it is, but it doesn't seem that old, because the wood that is left looks relatively new, and isn't really any squishy. I'm guessing that the handle probaly broke, and that the person just left it there. Consindering the debth and how corroded it is, it might be maybe 80 years old (at least that's what I hope). If this is true, this axe might once have been used for something while there was still ice block activity here.

A little update

Well, the last two days haven't really been that good. Yesterday i brought a couple of friends, even though it was pouring down. We only found a nail, and a tuna can. Today I continued up the forest path almost up to the dam. The soil is good here, so it's really easy to dig. I didn't really find anything of interest, although I did find a 50 øre from 2003. Not really great, but a coin is a coin.

My crap collection is getting larger, and my coin collection.. not so much. I'm hoping to find something around the dam in a couple of days.

More on the buckle

So I've asked around on some other forums about the buckle I found. Cryptic from allempires.com helped me eliminate a lot of possibilities, so that I now can say for certain that it is hand forged. Heres what he said as a conclusion:

"I think that the buckle was hand forged because:

- It is not perfect

- No mold lines

- The edges on some parts of the pin and some parts of the buckle look sharp. (first, third picture)

-The scatch (file) marks that you circled are all in the same places on the buckle. This implies personal attention and not mass production from molds

- The pin looks like alot of personal attention was put into making it square (first picture)

My guess is that it was hand forged as an individual buckle in a small shop before 1750."

On my metal detecting walk today I didn't find anything else than a round piece of metal under a large tree root (took me 45 minutes to hack the root away.. poor tree). My walk wasn't all bad though. I met an old couple who asked me what I was doing. So I told them of the buckle I found, and they nodded in agreedment. They told me that appearently this forest path is one of the oldest in Vollen (where I live)! It was used by pilgrims many hundred years ago, and the path it self was probably made around year 1000!

After hearing this, I can easily imagine some man from the 1750's running in the forest, and maybe ripping his pants, so the buckle fell of. I will have to search the area I found the buckle more thoroughly after a while, but for now I will continue up the forest where I went today, since there is much less trash there.