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Magnet Fishing!

I walk along the Brum canals quiet a lot and see a few people doing this. I see their finds more often though. They leave it next to the tow path mostly around bridges. Safes, shopping trolleys, bikes, car parts, metal fencing, signs, general metal parts.
Don't see the point myself. Metal detecting in water where poeple swim I can, because you find gold rings. But canals?
 
See them with their metal detectors on the beach were we live.They are always putting things in their pockets.
 
You will not pick up gold rings, or silver for that matter , as they are not attracted to magnets
 
You can buy a metal detector that will detect gold, you can also buy one that works in water, so instead of a magnet a gold seeking water proficient metal detector.....I feel a new TV programme coming on.

Bob
 
But would that sort of non-magnetic metal detector work submerged in water?
Well this is where I have to admit that I do watch television and the choice was Love Island (a travelogue I believe) or Aussie Gold Hunters. I thought long and hard, and after asking the wife she decided on Aussie Gold Hunters, she thought the scenery of Love Island might be to much for my heart. However to the theme and the point, this grizzled old Aussie Gold Hunter sat on the side of a creek watching for crocodiles, dipping his metal detector into the water, while his daughter snorkled and found gold, but I never knew you could get a metal detector that could be immersed in water. They found some small nuggets and there were no 'crocs'.

Bob
 
Check You Tube for 'metal detecting in water' some good channels, mostly in America. Gold rings, mobile phones being found and returned to their owners and stuff, old guns and police called, really good viewing.

Maurice, maybe proceeds of robberies, water is a good place to hide evidence. So I'm told.
 
I’ve been using a metal detector for years, and have had several models, the price of which increases every time; but the best detectors are very expensive indeed. Which is why I’m now amusing myself with magnet fishing - magnets are relatively cheap, they don’t require expensive batteries, or any other form of power; you just chuck ‘em in, and see what comes up. True, they don’t pick up non-ferric metals; so no gold (unless it's inside a cash box or safe) but there’s still lots to find.

Last week I joked of hoping to find a Viking sword, but actually found a toy car and a length of old chain. This week, I haven’t found another toy car, or chain, but I HAVE found a small Saxon knife, called a scramasax, or seax. It’s basically a design of knife, which range in size from that of a penknife, to that of a short sword. The one I’ve found, is about five inches in length. I’ve passed it on to a metal-detecting friend, who knows how to preserve metal, and he’s going to stabilise and treat it, so it doesn’t rust further. When I get it back I’ll take a photo’ and upload to the Forum.

I didn’t find it in the village stream, or in any of the local ponds, but in a small circular bog hole, in the forestry plantation behind my house.
I’ve often wondered what it was, and how it had come to be there, as it is less than six feet across, surrounded by a bit of a fence. The magnet and line went down about eight feet, into black, brackish peat water, which rather stank when I pulled it out again. Out came a rusty nut & bolt. After a few more casts I pulled out an eight inch long iron spike, with a right-angled bit at the fat end, rather like those spikes that were used when laying rail/sleeper tracks etc. Then a few casts later, up comes the knife, covered in stinking black silt. Although all the objects were black and rusty, they weren’t eaten through, just a bit pitted.

I reckon the peaty water must have acted as a preservative (?) - anyhow, I took the stuff home, and gave the knife a wash and a bit of a scrub, before running a small file lightly across the handle of the knife - bright metal! There were a couple of small holes through the handle that must once have secured some sort of grip. It’s an unusual shape, not like a regular knife, so I checked it out on-line. I have seen similar knives before, but I didn’t really believe that I’d found a real seax, especially such a small one. Although my metal-detecting mate is certain that it is a real seax, I’m going to have it checked out at the local university.

Tomorrow, I’m going to take my washing-line prop, to give the silt in the bottom of the bog-hole, a good old stir up! I’m also going to weight the magnet with a house brick, to sink it further into the silt. I just hope my poor old muscles can cope!
 
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Reminds of my youth. I use to use an handle off a galvanised bucket shaped into a hook with rope tied to it. Didn't find much them days.
 
Thinking about metal detecting made me think about the 'Staffordshire Hoard'. Largest amount of Saxon gold ever found, checking Google, Birmingham museum purchased it for £3.2 million and has it on display. The finder and land owner farmer split the money apparently.

There is a documentary about the find. Might be on You Tube.
 
You might find something not very appetising when fishing with a magnet. There was a report on the southern news tonight of an inquest, where someone, doing that in Southampton, picked up some handcuffs, but they were attached to a body. Someone was handcuffed and escaped from the police. The police obviously did not catch him, but he obviously did not get away
 
You don't need a magnet, a decent fish hook will find you a body. :eek:
A couple of friends and I were watching someone fishing at the end of a pier in Brixham harbour one summers evening in 1954. Instead of a large fish he managed to find a body at the end of his line!
A policeman soon arrived and gave us our marching orders.
 
No body parts as yet, but I have several more ‘finds’ which I shall photograph and upload - my i-pad camera has died, so I’ll have to get someone else to do it for me.

Apropos my post of Wednesday: as stated, I used my washing-line ‘prop’ to stir up the silt and, as was almost inevitable, I broke the damned prop! I’ve since cut a ten foot ash pole, and used it to stir said silt. It will also come in useful as a new prop! Anyway, the loosened silt has given up more ‘finds’ - I’d love to say more, but without photo’s you’d not believe me! The problem is, I need to get in there with a metal detector - and probably a wetsuit - neither of which I possess. My old detector has a waterproof coil, but the rest of it cannot be submerged. Any ideas?
 
Well there is a canal up Manchester way that has just that - a manhole on a chain. It wasn't really public knowledge until they drained a stretch of the canal for routine maintenance. If lifted, the water eventually drained into one of the culverted local rivers and from there into the River Medlock.

.

Maurice :cool:
 
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