tvanwho

Hmm, interesting, maybe I should actually read my De Re Metallica book and get some insights. -T

And can you experts, Chris, Steve, Jonathan, tell us how the old timers got their knowhow of where to dig for the gold? I thought they were mostly get rich quick types as in the gold rush at Pikes Peak, Colorado where the saying was " Pikes Peak or Bust" and shortly afterwards the saying was" Busted, by Golly" , as they came back east...and yet they seem to have done quite well in the American southwest deserts and California/Nevada goldfields. Who were these guys anyway? They had no historical precedents to go by in 1849 or knowledge of hardrock gold until later on. Was it all just dumb luck and perseverance that they found the yellow metal? -T

Well, I finally got off my butt and took the bracelet to my coin dealer. He agrees with all of you who said that a 14 K, 10 k,18 K, etc . gold ring or bracelet SHOULD LOOK NEW even if it comes outta the ground . If tarnished or dull, it is a very good chance it is fake, which mine is, he says. If it had been real, the bracelet would have been worth about $230....He no longer uses nitric acid to test, but another less corrosive chemical. He also told me ANYBODY can buy a gold/silver stamp and stamp a jewelry item and there is LOTS of Fraud these days on such items, even on Silver and gold bars and silver medallions and especially rare coins. He told me if one needs to buy Silver for an investment, to always buy American silver coins from before 1964 as these are never counterfeited. I was also told that Gold Filled or GF or 1/10 of 10 K etc jewelry does have some value, not much, but NOT worthless, whereas Gold Plate is worthless. -Tom

Rob, What is this Blowout thing? Got any photos of this or the iron oxide seams that had gold in them? One of the YouTube gold videos I watched, the guy was panning gold flakes out of something called Limonite and it was dark red material by an old gold mine. He had to bust it up with a pick and drill first. Is iron stone just black rocks like magnetite that sticks to a magnet? -T

I never got that lucky at eyeballing jewelry but on occasion have scored a gold ring and dug nothing else but trash the rest of the day. Usually it happens the other way around. I will definitely put the shallow rings tips to the test this summer and try to visit some local ball games in local parks and observe.the players .I do have a new used Canon SX50 with a very stable 50 x zoom lens now. Bought for wildlife photo hunting but could shoot people pics too. Some of my regrets in life were treasures that got away from me, usually cause I was too stupid or ignorant to know what I held in my hand or saw out the corner of my eye until years later. Hunting for Civil War era gold coin caches in NC, we found nothing, was walking out of the woods, and just happened to glance over my shoulder at the right instant, saw 2 rows of 5 gallon bucket lid size round depressed circles in the yellow grass, like 12 of them, wondered to myself if that was what we were looking for, when I should have wondered out LOUD to my treasure hunting partner at the time !!!! Coulda had my own tropical island in Bermuda a long time ago !!! Been back numerous times, cannot find those depressions. Or the time, I spied a blue glow under a rock formation in a Maine river bed. It was a 4 inch long, gem quality, aquamarine crystal, flawless, but I could not bear to break it off.This voice in my head told me that God put it there and I had no right to break it off. Stopped at a rock shop in New Hampshire and the lady told me to go back to the spot and dig like crazy under the crystal for a pocket and NOT to tell a soul !! I soon found out why there are so many lost mines in the world as every bend in the river looked the the same as the last one. Altho, I do know the shape of the unique rock formation it was under, IF the flood stage, boulder smashing hasn't pummeled it after 30 years? Or the time, a drunk showed me a coin he had found at an old farm site.I was with his friend checking out a Thomas Electroscope Model 20 at the time when they first came out. Well, guess what, it was no ordinary penny !! An 1856 Flying Eagle cent this old man had eyeballed. I was broke as usual at the time but the old guy just wanted $500 for it. The coin book back in 1985 indicated that was a $5,000 coin and it was in good to very good condition. Incidentally, I bought the Escope and it was the only dowsing rod I ever found coins with until it disappeared on a cache hunt in upper New York state. I have been pouting over that loss ever since.No other Escope would find coins for me, only that one for no apparent reason... The school of Hard Knocks is a tough one, no doubt about it...dunno if I will ever stumble across another treasure or not, but hopefully will be smarter now .. -Tom

I never did like that flimsy Keene green carpet and flimsy expanded metal? Much prefer the blue/gray ribbed carpet and aluminum or steel raised expanded thats 1/8 inch tall or so. Never tried the brush? I heard the old timers used to burn the burlap in their sluices after a while and pan the ashes. -Tom

My coin dealer told me of a local old woman who didn't trust banks.Her husband was an old country doctor and back in the 1930's during the Depression, he was paid in gold coins. The old lady apparently had a box full of them ,valued at $300,000 dollars. Her daughter convinced her to put the gold in a safety deposit box but when the mother died, the daughter found a note in the safety deposit box.It said 'Sorry, just don't trust banks.' Needless to say the gold coins were not there. The property was sold a short time later and the coin dealer told me the grounds looked like a moonscape with craters everywhere. -T

Yes, I have Chucks book and know him personally, even contributed some photos in the book of galena ore I metal detected in sw Wisconsin. Just found some photos of Chucks old 4 inch dredge when we were mining together at a secret spot on Big Pine creek by Attica,Indiana back in 2004. I seem to recall he dredged up 2 gold rings and 11 small gold nuggets that day and numerous small copper nuggets and how I envied him being able to go underwater with his hookah setup to get that better gold...

Ps, a brass candle stick holder on my MXT reads as 86, penny or dime, vs the bracelet at 25-36, pulltab or ring.

there is still a bit of brown on the bracelet, but dull yellow under it. My Gold Testers kit I just found is only good on gold ores so still need to go to coin dealer yet. Check out this latest photo after soaking in ketchup for 12 hours.

It turned from brown to mostly dull yellow after soaking in ketchup for 12 hours

As a side note, black sand might be sold to amateur blacksmiths who need raw iron ores to make homemade knives, and other items with , I have discovered recently. They may even have blacksmithing clubs. Something to do some research on. I am staying clear of cyanide or any homebrew chemical solutions for gold recovery. -T

How do you deal with the 7 pound weight on your forearm Steve? Most of us would be in pain after an hour of swinging? Nice results tho. Is this unit equal to the Minelab 2300 then or just the machine to have for this price point? -Tom V.

So much for hard and fast rules on gold locations then.Back to the old adage of gold is where you find it I guess? I often also wonder how the ancients located metals deposits 2000+ years ago? The Romans were fond of lead pipes for water delivery for instance but how did they even know about lead in the 1st place or where/how to find and mine and smelt it? Ditto for gold,silver,iron,copper? There were no reference books, heck they were using stone and clay tablets for writing materials back then. And yet, most major ancient cultures had gold ,silver,bronze, iron artifacts,coins,weapons, etc? We have it lucky with the inventions of paper, printing presses, computers and such...

But if you are in an area with no known gold and the signs look good anyway,like tons of rusty hotrocks and your VLF detector chattering constantly,should you be looking for gold? I found an area like this and recent research tells me there was an iron mining prospect there 125 years ago. I wonder if old Bog iron areas might contain gold too? Where were they found and why was it called Bog iron, something about rusty red areas in swamps I believe? Gots to find new strikes.Am sure the old timers did not find all the gold hotspots? Midwestern US states are gold poor except glacial gold in small amounts , so need to think outside the box. In a creek in central Illinois, my friend found an area with some shale bedrock, tons of mud in most of the creek bottom, but we struck/dredged up gold anyway by a farmers wing dam on said creek and lots of black sand . We were within 40 feet of numerous RUSTY red football size rocks on the creek bank at the time. No known gold location history thereabouts . -T

Just was wondering why so many desert prospectors find good gold in red dirt/rusty quartz? Especially in Australia and Arizona deserts? I know the red is iron but whats that have to do with gold? I am sure not all reddish/orange dirt has gold so are there tricks you guys use besides just detecting and sampling to find the good gold bearing red dirt? In Indiana we look for bluish clay layers along the creeks/under rocks which can have gold bits resting on top of them, a false bedrock I guess. -Tom V.

Thanks Mike, I bet its flea market gold then but will soak it overnite in ketchup and see what happens, then go see my coin dealer later this week. He likes to gab and I like to listen so its a win win no matter what. The last piece of 14 K gold I had was from a swim hole and it was a bright yellow ring. Altho this chain was in the ground,I think, but 15 years ago, who knows...my memory isn't that good anymore. Try to think positive...maybe will take my MXT along and see if he will let me air test some gold chains so I can see what to listen for and where they read on the VDi meter. I do like that Prospect mode where non ferrous reads like +5-+40 %. How do I read magnetic black sand deposits vs ground minerals on my MXT? I know they are not always gold bearing but might be worth locating to test out for gold anyway. -T

I was going thru my junk and found a gold bracelet that I had always thought was gold plate cause it was mostly brown with some yellow underneath? On closer examination, the clasp is clearly marked 14 K underneath by where the chain attaches and it does feel heavy. I got this ages ago with my Tesoro Lobo, before I had a metered machine.Just tested it with my MXT and 6 x 9 coil and it reads VDI 26-30, Pulltab/Ring on Coin mode and in Prospect mode,it reads 10% iron id which sure sounds like nonferrous to me...Does 14 K gold really corrode like this? How do I clean it up? Maybe I better take it to my coin dealer and see what he will give me ? It is about 8 inches long, 1/4 inch wide and 1/16 inch thick. Photos attached,taken with my new used Canon SX 50. -Tom

I've heard soccer fields for gold chains ,especially where the Hispanic adults play. We were asked to help find a large gold wedding band on the sidelines of such a soccer field. Apparently, the players put their street shoes here along with wedding bands, and sometimes ferget the ring is in their shoes. We found the ring in about an hour and returned it. My buddy was telling me about baseball fields where adults play,especially down the base lines,while we were hunting a ball field. 2 minutes later he scores a mens 14K ring just inches deep to prove his point !!! I got a heavy mens silver ring just a few inches deep in thick grass following this strategy at a local baseball field. An outfielder throws the ball hard and his wedding band flies off his finger is our reasoning. Both these locations require ADULTS PLAYING to get gold rings and chains !! I've found a few silver and gold chains and bracelets in past years. Silver chains make a machine gun like chattter as I recall.Gold chains are more iffy beeps,usually its the clasp that makes the detector beep. Would like to hear gold chain hunters secrets myself? I found most of my jewelry with Tesoro Lobo St and 9x8 or 8 inch round coils. The Black Sand mode is really handy for mineralized black sand beaches. I got a Playboy gold pendant at just a sandy swim beach location about 7 inches , in sand that made my machine chatter real bad until I put her in Black sand mode, otherwise I would have missed that gold item. I've never found any jewelry at sand volleyball courts and not many coins either. Guess i need to go to some games and watch where folks put their stuff so I know where to look for goodies? -Tom V.

You can also try at McMaster-Carr in Chicago, HUGE selection of everything, just watch out for shipping, so they don't get you with a truck freight charge vs UPS. http://www.mcmaster.com Also, try http://www.onlinemetals.com They keep sending me email notices for 15, 20, even 30 % discounts going into Xmas. They seem to have recent competition from Ebay sources I would suspect, where I have been ordering small amounts of metals this year, sometimes with free shipping. I just got a notice today from McNichols Company. They sell sheets of Perforated and raised expanded metals like we gold prospectors might use to build highbankers, dredges, sluices etc.Normally, they sell only 4 x 10 foot sheets which ship by truck and are basically unaffordable for us small guys. As of today, Jan 15, they have 1/3 to 1/2 size sheets available. The one I have my eye on is now $59 for 3 x 2 feet x 3/8 inch holes in 16 gauge. Am assuming this can be sent by UPS or US Mail instead of truck but better call 1st? http://www.mcnichols.com/smallsizes/?utm_source=bronto&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Minis_r4_c1Map&utm_content=Smaller+Perforated+Sheets+Now+Available&utm_campaign=010815_Minis They show 2 phone numbers, 800-237-3820, and 877-884-4653, email contact at Sales@mcnichols,com -Tom

And this was 70 years ago.....

I got brave and went back to the creek this past weekend. I was expecting low water since we have had such a dry fall and the weatherman is always wrong. Well, I get out there and its raining and the locals tell me 5 inches of snow due next day, and I didn't even have a poncho,I asked around for the nearest Walmart and was told I'd have to drive 30 miles !!! Guess I must be in the sticks ..? So, I got the last poncho that Shopco had. I drive over to my spot, and the creeks are all Flooded ?? How can this be? But I set out to take photos of the creek and surrounding hillsides anyway .I used my new Canon SX50 camera. Got about 40 shots. The creek was too fast and deep to even attempt any test panning. So, all was reasonably well, until I noticed somebody pulled over on the side of the road by my car. As I get back up there, a man hollers at me about it being muzzle loader season for deers and did I know that? He was also irritated as I was so near his tree stand. I confessed to not knowing it was still deer season and told him I was gold panning. Had my gold pan in full view but not wearing an orange hat, stupid me...Guess he thought my shovel was a gun? He refused to give me his name after hearing I had permission to be on the land where his tree stand was. Just wished I'd had a written note, but it was a verbal permission . He suggested I not gold pan in the area except in summer to avoid the local deer hunters. Also, I picked up an important tip.He said the creek had a large watershed and if it was raining even a little bit, the creek came up FAST. Well, at least I quit procrastinating and got off my lazy rear end to do this trip finally. Will go again in early summer 2015. Can't do any real exploring in the old armchair after all... -T

I chickened out this past weekend altho I did get me a 3 foot wood plank and attached a 4 foot rope to one end to get over soft spots.I can pull up the plank with the rope handle after crossing a spot. Its hard to find a fellow prospector who doesn't have to get his wife's permission to go out with yours truly...I had a buddy go with me a time or 2 but he would bring his brothers along and I didn't care for the added company or their cigarrettes , so now its just me. I did find one website that makes a mud boot that does NOT sink in but they are darn expensive, $150 shipped. Has anybody used a pair of these and how well do they work? Maybe I better invest in a signal flare gun like boaters use ,since I don't yet have a cell phone. Next year.I will get a decent phone...I did invest in a used Canon SX50 camera with 50x zoom and wired remote control ,mainly for critter shots. The last time I was out here alone , some years back,I had a scary experience. I was digging on a hillside, heard a BIG crash a ways west of me and figgered it was a tree branch falling. Went back to digging. A minute later ,another BIG crash, and another Big crash, then silence from that same area. Thought it kinda strange as tree branches only make 1 crash when they fall. Shortly after that, I felt thuds hitting the ground near me,like somebody was throwing rocks at me? At first it was random, then I noticed the thuds were getting closer and closer to where I was digging !!! I have been around nut trees where the tree was shedding nuts but they always come down randomly. At that point, with nite coming on and I was a ways from my car, I stood up and hollered..ok,ok, I am leaving, gimme a minute...to nobody I could see..I picked up my MXT and ran back up and down steep hills, crossed the mud creek .Got back to the car just as a dark black nite settled in. I've had a hard time getting up the nerve to go back there again needlesss to say. I don't think whatever was throwing them rocks was another person as people don't jump out of trees with huge crashing sounds. Plus, I had a pistol pack on me. Who would be fool enough to throw rocks at a person with a possible pistol in his pack? Makes me a bit shaky just to write this narrative...The only critters I ever saw in these woods were white tailed deers and they can't throw rocks...maybe it was a bigfoot? I never did see what it was or anything moving in the woods.. http://www.mudderboot.com/ -T

I could use some advice on traversing rough ground ? The creek I need to go check out in a few weeks,if the dry weather holds, has numerous mudholes and vertical banks up to 10 feet straight up with either water or knee deep mud at the bottom. The one side creek, I used to go down the bank on a knotted rope and had steps carved in the dirt but this creek bank is now 10 feet high and too dangerous to go up and down I think, especially by myself. Where it feeds into the bigger creek, is alternating mudholes and gravel bars and tons of hotrocks. I just found out last week, this area was almost an iron mine back in 1890 which would account for the hotrocks and red bedrock river bottom in spots and blasted out craters in the limestone ridges beside the creek. I never ran any gravel here in a sluice or did any serious panning or get rock samples, all of which I need to do this time, plus photos and detecting. Years ago, when i was here last, I even found a cone shaped tailings pile of mud and bits of limestone in the creek and an artificial looking white cobble gravel bar where i wanted to gold hunt. I am betting the iron miners were sluicing here before me altho I don't know why they would be sluicing for iron? The history book did not mention anything about gold in the account. Should I wear hip waders or my leather boots? That creek water is gonna be cold.Just hope the nettles and poison ivy are down by now,Nov 2014? I have to get up and down a couple steep hills and that muddy creek bottom via deer paths or making my own path about a mile in from the nearest road.Wonder if I should wear blaze orange as it may be deer season for bow hunters? Thanks, -Tom V.

No offense Chuck, But this thread is only dealing with Tesoro Lobo Supertraq metal detector modifications... Thanks. -Tom