I was lucky enough to find a wooden sabot for a 24lb cannonball. This was dredged up with the ball probably still attached but broken off when the bulldozer was pushing the sand. I found most of the chunks of the ball. I am going to try and put it back together. The case shot was all around it. Well my question is if anyone has any ideas about preserving this sabot. It has been in saltwater for 150 years. The first thing I read to do is to actually put it in the upper part of a toilet to help flush out the salts I've read many different methods such as using linseed oil or tung oil. Then I read not to use these natural oils. From what I've read and heard it is very rare to find one of these they usually rot away guess the ocean slowed the decomposition of it. Any thoughts out there on how to preserve this unique artifact would be greatly appreciated thanks everyone! I included a picture of what a wooden sabot looks like sitting behind a ball this is a European ball but same principle.
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That sure is an interesting find. I hope you find your answer. My mom would preserve all things wood with linseed oil and turpentine mixture. Why wouldn’t just keeping it dry preserve it? Anyway, It’s pretty cool.South Dakota
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Congrats on the find Marshall.. awesome man.... how'd u find it. Metal detecting? Was.the shot and ball metal or stone? Found in a salt Marsh?. Or at beach?SW Connecticut
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Cool Find Mon!
This product seems made to order..
Wooden Sabot Treatment
We pride ourselves on offering our customers fine wood treatment and leather care products. Our non-hazardous products are used by museums, professional restoration specialists and wood workers around the globe. These products will preserve and help you restore the original qualities of your wood and leather.
We pride ourselves on offering our customers fine wood treatment and leather care products. Our non-hazardous products are used by museums, professional restoration specialists and wood workers around the globe. These products will preserve and help you restore the original qualities of your wood and leather.If the women don\'t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.
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Thanks Von I have it sitting in the solution now it still has several more weeks of soaking. It was a real challenge getting all the saltwater encrustations off the wood without damaging it. I got most of it off but there is still some there. I'll add a picture of what it looked like after most the crust came off. Eventually I'll post a finished picture.
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May split when it dries. I’d say if you found a dry artifact like in a cave , keeping it dry would be the way to go. Since yours is wet or has been maybe it cured in the water and can be dried with no problems other than a crack or two. Would like to see a pic with the metal ball pieces and how your displaying it
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This sabot has been in saltwater since 1863. Since it was in saltwater the salts needed to be removed before it dried out not allowing the salts to expanded cracking it. It immediately went into a freshwater tank with constant water changes. I used the upper tank of my toilet after a thorough cleaning. This way the water was always changing and flushing out the salts. It is now sitting in the solution that Olden found out about. I owe him! It will sit there for another month. When I get it displayed I will post some pics. Thinking I'm going to put half cannonball chunk in it halfway filled up with caseshot. It took me weeks to get crust off the outer layer exposing the original wood.
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