Back In Pod Auger Days

[JCR]

The title is a proverbial saying to describe a time long ago.

The last few weekends I have been hunting one of the oldest sites of local activity. Early 1840's.   It is well known & has been hunted by many over the years. It is very overgrow & trashy in the best spots. Not easy hunting but there is still some interesting finds to be made if you look in the right places.  Those days long ago were real, and so were the people who lived and built and lost along the way.

[CPT_GhostLight]

Very interesting finds, JCR, and they all look very old. well done!

The hand auger, spike, and decorative piece are awesome. Is the larger object an axe head? The long item kind of reminds me of a scraping tool of some sort.

 

[JCR]

Yes, axe head with the eye split open. What you called a spike is some sort of keyed locking pin. It has an unusual specific profile. The looped long handle is threaded on the end. I have not come up with what it might be for. The decorative flat piece is from a wood stove.  To me, the pod auger is one of my best finds in a while. An unusual find in unusually good condition. The screw thread tip is even well preserved.  Pod augers were quickly superseded by large bore screw augers by the mid 1800's when the Machine age started catching up to everyday life.  Until then they had been used for centuries as the only way to bore deep holes in timbers or bore out wooden water pipes.