Did I nail it or was I screwed?

[2ndoldman]

On Wednesday I promised Micheal that I would stay out of the Gorge as he claims that it is his (ya right). :rolf:
So I tried out the new CTX on a land hunt. For those of you who are getting rain,
be thankful as we have entered stage 3 drought conditions early here on the island and digging is horrible.
Anyways I did manage one keeper.

And I have to say that I do prefer looking at brass that has been in saltwater.

Yesterday I went back to the Gorge and I think that I set a new record for broken glass and pottery fragments. :crazy:

But there were a few whole pieces. This little bottle is marked W T co USA

Now I have to find a deeper style of metal screw cap for this one as the ones I have been finding don't fit.

And even the hornets liked this one.

Without the sifter I made I don't think I that would even try this spot that I have been working lately as there is so much stuff in each scoop.

There is another spoon hiding under the pile but I will get to that soon. And take a look at the 2 forks because they are the keepers for the day.
There are a ton of these lead sealer rings everywhere.

[JoshinMO]

You came back with stuff. :dunno:  :laugh:
The thing the hornets like is cool.

[2ndoldman]

And this is the reason for the tittle.

  The seem to have had a bang up good time here in the past.

  And whoever used this one was determined to get it to fire. They tried 4 times before throwing it away.

  Here"s the odds and sods of the brass, including a different style of spark plug.

  And a few more suspender parts.

At least I think that the bottom 2 pieces are suspender pieces, they just don't make a lot of sense with the design.  :dunno:

[2ndoldman]

OK spoons. This is the one that was hiding. And it's very common for silver plate items to look like this coming out of the Gorge.

  But with a little reverse electrolysis and then a round in the tumbler they look like this.

  I did manage to find 2 older coins yesterday. 1 1934 Canadian small and an English half penny no date. But the design of this half penny was used from 1860 - 1894.

  I guess that I have rambled on long enough and it's time to get to my keepers for the day.

2 Canadian Pacific Railway forks. Different designs on the forks and the logos.

  By 2 different makers. It is very hard to date these 2 forks by the makers so any help would be appreciated. I have search for pictorial makers marks and have found no matches and the Rodgers one instead of showing EP has NS

[2ndoldman]

JoshinMO wrote: You came back with stuff. :dunno:  :laugh:
The thing the hornets like is cool.

You caught me mid post Josh Ya I got stuff. :woohoo:  :woohoo:  :woohoo:

[JoshinMO]

Didn't see those bottles either, good haul!

[rmartin]

Love it Bruce! Anything with  RR stamp on it is good. Is that a fruit jar  lid?

[painshill]

Hi Bruce, the two fork manufacturers are both Sheffield makers:
Joseph Rodgers
Joseph Rodgers & Sons were founded in 1682 and became Joseph Rodgers & Sons Ltd in 1871, operating from 6 Norfolk Street, Sheffield with a showroom at 60 Holborn Viaduct, London. They opened a new large factory in 1899 at River Lane, Sheffield and also had premises at Sheaf Island, Middlewood Forge and in Pond Hill.
Walker & Hall
Walker was founded in 1845 by George Walker and joined by Henry Hall in 1853 to become Walker & Hall. The manufacturing premises were at Howard Street, Sheffield, with showrooms at 45 Holborn Viaduct, London. They also had branches in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Cardiff, Belfast, Hull, Bristol, Melbourne and Adelaide (Australia), and Cape Town (South Africa).
If we were looking at Sterling silver then date letters followed a standardised system determined by each individual Assay Office. So the date letter ‘B’ on the Rodgers item would be 1864 for the Sheffield Assay Office. Dating old Sheffield plate however is always a problem because plate wasn’t subject to assay. There were no date marks in use before 1841 (first voluntarily introduced by the Elkington Company). Walker & Hall began using them in 1884, but they aren’t always present. Every manufacturer used a different system – if they had a system at all - and we don’t always have the records to determine the dates with precision.
The Walker & Hall item is a little easier to date, even without a date letter. The style of that pennant to the right of the word “Hall” changed in different periods and that particular style was in use between about 1905 – 1920.
The letter ‘B’ on the Rodgers item is probably a date letter (but not 1864) and I would say dates to after the expansion of the business in 1899 (largely to meet export demand). So again, we’re probably looking at early 1900’s.
There is one other useful rule of thumb for Sheffield plate. If you see a crown in the marks it’s likely pre-1896 and if you don’t it’s likely post 1896. This relates to plate manufacturers being forced by law to stop using symbols which could be confused with Sterling silver hallmarks, and the crown was the Sheffield assayer’s mark.

[Jeffery Howle]

You sure pulled some stuff out of the ground....I tried the thing you sent me to clean the fork it didn't really work that good...lots of crude on it...I scrub it with a plastic scrubby...and could see maker...the best I can make out on it is tago21's 17  WM RODGERS and son AA.....I found spoon the other day its hard to read whats on it but think its gold plate....don't want to scrub to much on it how can I clean these..

[2ndoldman]

rmartin wrote: Love it Bruce! Anything with  RR stamp on it is good. Is that a fruit jar  lid?

Ray a fruit/preserves  jar is the most likely candidate for this lid. Most likely from a similar item like this.

I can not find a lot of information on the Hamilton Glass Co but the date range from this excerpt is about right for this area.
Hamilton had most glass plants in Canada, and enjoyed a colorful history. Hamilton glass works was founded back in 1864, in the eastern end of Hamilton. It later acquired the Glass works on MacNab in 1885. Another company, the Diamond glass Company later came along and purchased Hamilton Glass works in 1891. In 1892 a fire at the former Burlington Glass works severely damaged the plant � and it closed five years later. A year later one of the managers left the company to open the Toronto Glass works when they moved all the equipment and employees to Toronto.

[2ndoldman]

Roger once again you have come to my rescue. Thank you my friend.

I have received some corroborating information from the other forum. This is in regards to the ribbon logo on the forks.
" The original wording in the garter read "Canadian Pacific Railway", and was certainly in use on CPR china as early as 1898, though revived a few times in later years. The pattern was in use on the Great Lakes Steamer Keewatin in the 1950s, but as yours is from the west coast, it dates more likely from the 1898-1906 period.
The other fork has "Canadian Pacific Railway Co" in the garter. On china, this was used from 1908 and throughout much of the 20th century, and the same logo would have carried over to flatware."
So that places the "Rodgers" fork at 1906 at the latest. Once again thank you  :woohoo:

[2ndoldman]

Jeffery I tend to use my reverse electrolysis system to remove or at least loosen most of the crud on many of the items I find as a preliminary cleaning.
Then depending on size and content I determine how to proceed from there. For example the 2 forks I just found were to big to fit into my tumbler so I used an SOS pad to finish the cleaning.  :crazy:
Here is an easy home made reverse Electrolysis system.
Jeffery my old system.

Was fairly inexpensive. The transformer was $10 and the Labco power supply was $23
The problem I had was the xfmr would not handle the loads I kept putting them to.
So I upgraded the xfmr which cost $72 and put it in an old alarm control box.


And this is the type of results that can be achieved.
Old axe heads

And an old wood stove front piece during the cleaning.

And the finished product.