Recent content by jgawne

This is a somewhat rusty bayonet I found at a yard sale many many years ago, and just dug out while cleaning. If anyone can confirm what it is I would appreciate it.

I am cleaning out my vast repository of stuff I don't need and think there is one or two in all my 1/6th stuff that I'd trade for useless dug up scrap lead and iron

I forget if this was ever posted, but should be. Some quite interesting WW2 stuff. http://www.lerenfort.fsnet.co.uk/

I know a lawn where my dad lost his gold wedding ring many years ago. But the owners don't want holes dug all over their nice lawn looking for it. I am quite backwards on MD technology, but is it at a point where one could reliably say that the signal from a gold ring would be quiet different...

A fellow I know in Australia sends me this looking for good, scholarly sources... I am also writing papers on Stonewall Jacksons first campaign in the Shenandoah Valley - why it is still regarded as relevent to later generations of military leaders and another one relating to the problems...

Which I seem to see being sold by everyone. Especially as fillers in those 9.99 Civil War relics cases on ebay. The question is, does anyone buy these? I showed a few on ebay to wife who is quite into history of fashion. She says "Oh, those are just nice 19th cent buttons. If you see them...

A long shot - In 1982 (ish) I was doing an internship at the Smithsonian, and some nice fellow came in that I helped take photos of the Union forage cap collection for a book On t he subject. I forget who he was, but gathered he was a pretty well respected author looking at variations by maker...

Being a (damn) yankee I find I may have to (get to?) move south to work near Ft. Belvoir. I suppose I should try and find a place that is near some ACW site so I can have the fun of digging in my own back yard. Just curious if anyone has any suggestions?

In the next few weeks a team from t he US Army is heading off to Normandy to attempt to discover if the 'magnetic anomaly' in what was an anti-tank ditch behind Omaha beach, is in fact one of the DD tanks that made it ashore before being knocked out. Supposedly, the engineers bulldozed one or...

A friend of mine was hunting an area in Normandy back int he fall. One weekend they found a German Panzershreck- the next weekend they found an American Bazooka, not very far apart. These are pretty rare finds and it totally blew their minds for such things one weeks apart, and about 100 yards...

Just back from a quick trip trip to France and some digging. I was with two MASTERS of the battlefield and we went to a few places. The one that really stood out was a farm used as a POW camp for Germans until they could be sent on. Under about 12 inches of earth, we just dug and sifted the...

please see- http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... gory=13960 the seller states- "Honestly, I will not say for 100% certainty that this Gettysburg bullet is HAUNTED but strange and amazing things have occurred in connection with these two bullets since they have been in my possession...

OK, look at http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... gory=13960 this is for a "gettysburg dug Smashed Gardner Blowthrough Civil War Bullet " a relicman auction So my question is- if it blew through- would that not have taken out a lot of the power of the shot- so that the round would...

I got a box-o-bullets in the mail today. Many werer still quite dirty. SO I did what I normally do with stuff like this and soaked them in a wash of warm water with some soap. About 20% of the bullets turned a dark gray with very little patina, another 10% turned a very light shade gray, and the...

These are things I learned from ancient coin collectors. They may, or may not have made it to this field. SO pardon me if everyone knows them. Ancient coin/relic collectors clean their brass/bronze thigns in olive oil. Seems a long soaking in to will loosen the crud and not bother the patina. A...