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I Forge Iron

Yeehaw!! Scored big!


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That one was done by friends of mine.  When I was moving to NM from OH, I gave all my friends the locations of my scrounging places---most of them illegal dump sites; others were where I had special arrangements made with small industries.   I had removed the other tine and lugged it out by myself, ugh, but had left that one in place on the side of a spoil pile near the river. (When they decided the 1950's forklift was no longer useful they pushed it off the bluff face.)  It had an 8" diameter tree growing through the cab.  My friends weighed that one and said it was 180#.  No wonder I found it a chore to drag mine off the spoil pile and through the forest to the truck by myself!  Funny that the maker's logo on the fork is an anvil!

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All steel, all the way down!   

Industries have been dumping their refuse into the rivers in Columbus from the mid 1800's if not earlier.  I tried to see if I could find an anvil as a fellow I talked with who had worked at one of the anvil makers in Columbus told me that there was a line of anvils along the edge of the bank of the river when they shut the factory down.  Well I found the worn out sandstone grinding wheels they rolled into the stream but the bed seemed to be about 80% metal and so I couldn't use a metal detector to see if any anvils had sunk into the mud.

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Magnet fishing with a BIG magnet and a winch or come along?

Seriously, there might actually be a viable economic project there using large equipment.  Might need a Dredge and Fill Permit from the Corps of Engineers but maybe not.

If I were in the area I'd at least have some sort of exploratory talks with the land owner and maybe get the local scuba club to do some exploratory dives.  Probably very bad underwater visibility.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

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Well I moved 1500 miles away before getting any "deeper" into it.  Water depth is not a problem; toxic waste probably would be.  a backhoe would probably be enough; though it would be nice to use sensors to localize the hunt.  HOWEVER looking at a recent satellite picture, it looks like the area has been "reworked" as the old factory building look to no longer be present.  I don't know if the changes to the streambed would impede a search.  Definitely a job for industrial archeology now.

Trying to find the anvil in the sub basement of a nearby hospital would probably be more cost effective---if they haven't demolished that in the 18 years since I lived there.

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Need to use orbital GPR to map the site and ground / boat level to pinpoint things. In a general sort of way that is.

I wonder how many IFI members would be willing to chip in on the satellite time. Wait, the last active SR-71 is used for GPR and other similar duties. Now I'm wondering which would be cheaper. 

Frosty The Lucky. 

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Hmm I wonder what Wright Patt has on hand...The big problem is that iron and steel have been dumped into the river for over 150 years and so very hard to look for an anvil when the entire bed "pings".  If I was still living there I might track down the folks who did the dirt work when the place was demolished and reworked.

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GPR can draw a general 3D picture, especially when comparing dense in lighter materials. Perhaps couple it with some of the really high sensitivity sonic scan tech. I'd call it sonar or seismometer but it's not really the same thing. Heck magnetometers scanners are getting crazy sophisticated, I've seen examples on treasure hunting shows where they were able to differentiate between iron, gold and silver. Telling gold from silver coins in a decomposed sack under the seabed with a hand held unit was almost StarTrek cool. The readings were massaged by computers on the boat but still.

In reality I believe scanning would probably map an area to mine. And mine it'd be.

Frosty The Lucky.

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You are probably aware of the "messing with rivers" permits in AK; but as I recall they were probably a lot worse in a city in Ohio.

I lived in Columbus for about 15 years and averaged 1 good brand anvil in good to great shape a year for *under* US$1 a pound. It got so I'd sell them on just to keep the number down.  (Or trade them up, my deal for the 400+# Trenton included a 125# PW).  I kinda wish my chronic "anvil envy"  hadn't had me always going heavier.  Nowadays another 100# travel anvil seems like the better deal for teaching on the road.---Why I sold off the 248# PW, I didn't need a medium sized anvil. The big ones (400+#) and the shop ones, (165#); and the travel ones (134#, 112#, 91#)  fill my needs.  Of course now I wish I had hoarded all I found and used them to pay for my retirement!

 

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On 2/11/2022 at 9:07 PM, George N. M. said:

Magnet fishing with a BIG magnet and a winch or come along?

Have you ever seen the rigs they use to salvage submerged logs in the southern rivers? Basically a pontoon boat with an open area between the pontoons and a winch in the middle. A diver hooks the log and they winch it to the surface. Would probably work in this situation as well. Or air filled bags could be a possibility. 

Pnut

 

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On 2/11/2022 at 7:35 PM, ThomasPowers said:

dumping their refuse into the rivers

Once while kayaking down the Youghiogheny river I was at the side magnet fishing a bit while my buddy was fishing for fish. I wound up getting the magnet stuck to a large Heavy metal surface. I could just feel a corner of it and it was thick  with flat sides. It was too big for me to budge so when my buddy wanted to move on I gave up on trying to figure out what it was. I'd really like to revisit it some day with a pry bar "if" I can find it again. The long straight stretch where I found it would take a while to relocate it. 

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Most of the year there isn't enough water in it to use a boat.  I was looking for some "quiet methods".    I did figure out a way I could wait till it froze solid and then lever one of the old grinding stones onto a stone boat sledge and haul it to where I could get a vehicle to it.  Moved before I tried it out.  Got rid of all the human powered grindstones I picked up in the hoard too.  Not enough apprentices working for nothing these days!

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On 2/15/2022 at 8:10 AM, ThomasPowers said:

You are probably aware of the "messing with rivers" permits in AK; but as I recall they were probably a lot worse in a city in Ohio.

You've never witnessed how trying to permit anything in Alaska goes. Virtually any disturbance of native soil is challenged by endless law suits from environmental activist organizations from other states. Even after all permits, impact studies, reports, approvals, etc. have been completed projects can take years to get through the law suits filed to prevent "irreparable environmental devastation" filed by organizations with names that include Alaska in the name bur aren't headquartered within a couple few thousand miles and "science" of unknown purpose. 

Sorry.  End rant.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Lol, that’s sounds like a logical business plan! 

now I wanna start an organization to protect dirt in a state a couple thousand miles away that I’ve never been to! 

I wonder how much I could make off that?…. Oh wait I meant non profit…. I’d never wanna stick my hand in the million dollar cookie jar! Lol

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