A fun hobby.

[SeaCat]

I have a Metal Detector. It's nothing special, just an old cheapo but I use it. I visit the local beaches once or twice a week and stroll about with it. Rare is the day that I don't come home with a chain or two in my pocket.

Now I'm not anal about this but I have been doing it for a while. I have a good idea about metals and know most of them. It's easy to identify the gold ones but the ones like Platinum are a bit harder.

If I can identify it, then it goes into a coffee can. Gold into one and silver into another. Others go into the third.

Now here is the thing. I don't go to the dealers and turn the metals in. I keep them. Every now and then, roughly every six months, the cans get full. When this happens I dig through the closet and pull out the tiny little crucibles.

I make some molds by wrapping some plaster around some Tealights. After melting the wax out I have the molds.

I set the crucibles up over a blow torch and start melting the chains down. This takes a bit but I don't mind. I like playing with fire. When the crucible os almost full I skim it then dump it into a mold or two. It's amazing how many chains it takes to fill one mold. Then again each mold holds a bit over five ounces.

Any stones in the jewelry are popped out and dropped into a Mason Jar.

A nice little hobby if you ask me.

Cat

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Especially in a time when all the "smart managers" are desparately diving out of stocks and into precious metals. You're going to have a down payment on a house (or a brand new bike!) in the not-too-distant future.

 

[john-the-author]

I have a Metal Detector. It's nothing special, just an old cheapo but I use it. I visit the local beaches once or twice a week and stroll about with it. Rare is the day that I don't come home with a chain or two in my pocket.

Now I'm not anal about this but I have been doing it for a while. I have a good idea about metals and know most of them. It's easy to identify the gold ones but the ones like Platinum are a bit harder.

If I can identify it, then it goes into a coffee can. Gold into one and silver into another. Others go into the third.

Now here is the thing. I don't go to the dealers and turn the metals in. I keep them. Every now and then, roughly every six months, the cans get full. When this happens I dig through the closet and pull out the tiny little crucibles.

I make some molds by wrapping some plaster around some Tealights. After melting the wax out I have the molds.

I set the crucibles up over a blow torch and start melting the chains down. This takes a bit but I don't mind. I like playing with fire. When the crucible os almost full I skim it then dump it into a mold or two. It's amazing how many chains it takes to fill one mold. Then again each mold holds a bit over five ounces.

Any stones in the jewelry are popped out and dropped into a Mason Jar.

A nice little hobby if you ask me.

Cat

The one thing you may have a problem with is the grade of the metals. Ungraded gold, silver, and platinum aren't going to sell for as much as graded. Other than that one possibly cautionary point, I think this is VASTLY cool and I wish you great success with it. Well done!

 

[amicus]

Likewise, way cool (influence of grandkids), and I envy you as this is one of those things I have intended to do for the past 30 years and never got around to it.

I used to fly fish a lot in the many streams of the Northwest, mainly to get out into nature, didn't care much for boney little trout, but the idea of tramping through the woods, along stream banks each spring after the high water brings down new material is something I still wish to do, and I sure need the exercise.

Thank you for a delightful post...I had never thought much past the discovering point...all kinds of possibilities now, thanks to you.

Amicus...

 

[oggbashan]

Locally we don't get that amount of personal jewellery lost on our beaches.

What we do get are Roman and Saxon artefacts. Finding a Roman coin is so common that it doesn't get mentioned in our local paper.

At low tide there are several square miles of beach to search. After a storm it would be unusual not to find something significant, with or without a metal detector.

The downside? Too much unexploded ordnance from World War 2.

Og

 

[gabriel117]

My brother was into this as a hobby. Here's a couple of things he found in our backyard - brass knuckles and an amulet.
http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu246/thecondomzone/punete.jpg

 

[john-the-author]

My brother was into this as a hobby. Here's a couple of things he found in our backyard - brass knuckles and an amulet.
http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu246/thecondomzone/punete.jpg

WOW!!!!

 

[SeaCat]

My brother was into this as a hobby. Here's a couple of things he found in our backyard - brass knuckles and an amulet.
http://i652.photobucket.com/albums/uu246/thecondomzone/punete.jpg

Very nice.

I have never found anything like that but the hope always remains.

The strangest thing I have ever found was someones "Grill". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grill_(jewelry)) It was a cheap one though made with very thin metal and no stones.

Most of what I have found has been thin neck chains, usually broken.

Evey now and then I head north to the Treasure Coast and check out their beaches.

Cat

 

[redpaint]

Always wanted to try this. Just to see what if anything O could find.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

they were quite a fad a while back. Haven't seen one in ages, out here, though.

 

[Techomancer]

Likewise, way cool (influence of grandkids), and I envy you as this is one of those things I have intended to do for the past 30 years and never got around to it.

I used to fly fish a lot in the many streams of the Northwest, mainly to get out into nature, didn't care much for boney little trout, but the idea of tramping through the woods, along stream banks each spring after the high water brings down new material is something I still wish to do, and I sure need the exercise.

Thank you for a delightful post...I had never thought much past the discovering point...all kinds of possibilities now, thanks to you.

Amicus...

Awk! Now I have to get out my fly tying gear and stock up for summer.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Awk! Now I have to get out my fly tying gear and stock up for summer.

Summer? Hell, we fly fish the beach twelve months a year . . . or at least some of the guys around here, do. I've been thinking of taking it up . . .

 

[SeaCat]

Well I went out with my replacement detector. (The old one finally gave up the ghost.)

My wife and I arrived at the local beach and started looking around. It was coolish and windy so there weren't many people around. Of course I did time it wrong, it was coming up on high tide.

For a while it was like there was nothing on the beach. A couple of tones that turned out to be Foil but that was it. The wife became bored and found a spot out of the wind and pulled out her book. I didn't mind.

Then the tones started and I was smiling as I dug in the damp sand.

A quarter, a dime, another quarter then a Deutch Mark. A couple of newer pennies then a broken kids bracelet. A couple of screws and more Bottle Tops than I cared to think about. Hell even a six inch long piece of rusted wire. It got quiet for a bit then I started getting more hits. More coins then a large hoop earing. (Who in the world wears Hoop Earings to the beach?) A cheap Belt Buckle and a couple of Soda Cans later I was about ready to leave.

All of the trash was dropped into a plastic bag which was dropped into the trash can as we left.

What the hell I had some fun and we both got out on the beach. What was funny was how the few people out there kept coming up and asking about what I had found. (I liked it when the northern beach bunnies came up. Over weight and pale as snow while wearing their tiny little bikinis they thought they were the sexiest things out there.)

Cat