Milling ball?

[Jake Pringles]

Found sticking out of dirt in ravine in the woods heading back from a creek, at first I about fell to the ground because I thought it was a huge game ball, but after a little reading, the seam and round indentation makes more sense for a milling ball.

2.96" diameter, round within about .03" 1.17lb. Found in E TN in roan county.

Anyone know what this is and when or what it was used for?

Thanks!

Jake

[Scorpion68]

Jake - It looks like an old que ball to me. But I'm sure someone on here has found one before or knows what it actually is. Thanks for posting. Also - Welcome Aboard AH.com.

[2ndoldman]

I like the looks of that Jake. I am clueless as to its purpose at the moment.
Can you tell what material it is made of?

[Jake Pringles]

The square shapes embedded into the ball made me wonder about queball, I understand that's how really old queballs were told apart with a game of 2 with a small square polished in, otherwise I just figured it was a stone aggregate inside the original solid rock that stood out once polished. It almost has the chalky feel of polished limestone and weighs 1.17 lb. I am unsure of exact material, but does feel a lot like limestone

[G10+]

Kinda want to say some kind of deburring ball ,,,, factory's that produce steel parts will put bunches of them in a vibrating machine along with the steel parts and it would deburr them .... it seems a little big for that though .... some one will chime in ... welcome to our humble site ,from NW Arkansas

[Jake Pringles]

Kinda want to say some kind of deburring ball ,,,, factory's that produce steel parts will put bunches of them in a vibrating machine along with the steel parts and it would deburr them .... it seems a little big for that though .... some one will chime in ... welcome to our humble site ,from NW Arkansas

That could be. There is black stains inside much of the pitting that looks like carbon or something. I am certainly leaning toward industrial use

[Jethro355]

Looks much like a cast ball used for pulverizing stuff. I've seen them put in a cement mixer(like off the back of a concrete truck) with just about anything from limestone to coal, and turned to make powdered whatever out it.

[Jake Pringles]

Did a scratch test with a knife and couldn't even scrape residue off. Ceramic maybe?

[Hoss]

It looks ceramic to me Jake It is large for a cue ball Cue Balls are around 2" diameter and weigh around 5.5 ounces . Ceramic balls are used for many things. I used to work in the rubber industry many moons ago and short lived factory jobs. Both Latex Foam rubber and In the latex industry we had tanks filled with compounds . The compound tanks were on a horizontal axis and ceramic balls in there would help to mix the slurry as the tank rotated. In the hard rubber industry we had extruded rubber and molded rubber products they would come out of the mold with what is called flash at the seams we would throw the parts into a tumbler and freeze them with nitrogen then tumble the parts with ceramic balls inside. The balls would knock the frozen flash right off and clean up the edges real nice. There are so many more uses for ceramic balls in all kinds of industries. Including waste water treatment.