Why are relics my favorites?

[dano1917]

I'm glad you asked!! In my mind (or what's left of it) what I collect first and foremost is history. When I get a relic, along with it comes a true sense that it was there, and in some cases you can also find out WHERE. My first pic is an m1917 egg and 15cm German nose cone with Dopp Z 92 fuze that I was told by the sellers that they were from the Somme. I believe it because I choose to. The second is of 2 German WW1 fuzes that recently came to me from a collector friend that found them at Verdun. There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that that is true. I can hold these pieces and truly feel a sense of history and there is no way in hell that I would ever alter these pieces (may clean fuzes a bit). Now I do from time to time alter WW1 pieces, but these are things I get incomplete and things on those lines. When I do alter a piece it is only for display and never for deception. Glad I got that off my chest as that's my story and i'm a stickin' to it...Dano

 

[Rrickoshae]

good on you Dano, things don't have to have a monetary value to be worth having - the historical value is often greater. I often pick up odds and ends walking the fields around a village near Arras (I don't dig or detect, just the Mk1 eyeball), mostly they are incomplete but just once in a while you get a few goodies. My wife's great uncle is burried near to where i walk and that gives an added touch of poignancy even though he was actually killed a few miles away. (I know exactly where he was killed but have never found anything there!). I guess most collectors would consider it just so much old junk but I can never stop picking up another cartidge, shrapnel ball, shell fragment etc. Dave

 

[Rrickoshae]

for a bit of fun Dano, try this, go on Google Earth and input 'Thelus', this will take you to a village with, roughly speaking, a road running left to right of your screen. Pan right and zoom in until you have the last few houses on that road in view and opposite them you will see the cemetry where the wife's great uncle is buried. Keep panning right, past the farm and the T junction and then look for 2 tracks running from the road towards the bottom of your screen. The first is straight and the other is a dog leg. I walk the fields both sides of that track! You have to catch it right though - when they have just ploughed or have a potato crop so that you can see the soil. Dave

 

[dano1917]

relics

Hi Dave, That's the spirit. Wish I could join you on one of those walks as it would be a lifes dream come true. Fancy it to be pretty near to finding buried treasure. You are lucky to be THERE...Dano

 

[18pounder]

I love relics too,it gives me the chance to collect stuff thats normally out of my budget.

To get a relic back to its former glory is no easy job and and I believe a art in its own right.It can be dam difficult to get the paint job looking good,especially when all you have is some colour diagrams and grainy images!

I'm pretty lucky really,my sister lives in Belgium near French border so she usually has stuff for me that has been given her for when I visit.

I was once offered a Lee Enfield rifle with Bayonet,but soon realised it was a working weapon with ammunition!

It is amazing what you can see on the surface,but I'm always mindfull of old battlefields,after all you are walking on a mass grave in places.

Last place I visited was Lochnagar Mine crater at La Boiselle,near Albert.
I took a little stroll away from the crater along a foot path(500 yards or so) and was soon studying spent bullets and cases along with barbed wire ordnance of all sorts that was lying across my path buried in the dry mud.

I only took a few bits home,some bullets ,shell splinters (there were tons of it) and a mills bomb lever.
As I stood there looking at this Mills bomb lever,I tried to imagine the person that pulled the pin and lobbed the grenade.

I have the upmost respect for these lost men,and everytime I look at this elic on my bookcase I dont just see a lever,I see a man who probebly lost his life in the terrible carnage of the trenches.

 

[dano1917]

relics

If those relics could only talk, would probably have quite a story to tell...Dano

 

[CampX]

I love the dug stuff also...I thinkk it has more "Flavor" to it.

Dean

 

[dano1917]

cool

Amen Dean, and by the way welcome to BOCN, I think you have a lot to share. Dano

 

[CampX]

Thanks Dano, I will try to help out anyway I can..I "work" as a "finds" advisor on 2 UK Metal Detecting forums...I may have saved a fellow or 2 over the years, as one found what he thought was a "cement" Mills Grenade and was playing with it..when he posted photos of it, I KNEW it was live....he turned it in..and yes it was.

A few years ago I was featured in a British Metal Detecing Mag..they sent one of there writers over to talk to me and get some photos of some of my dug collection...kinda neat as I was the first none UK person to be featured...I can't even remember the name of the mag..II have a copy somewhere.

Dean

 

[Jagd301]

Battlefield Relics.

I agree 100% with you Dano! Battlefield relics just have that atmosphere that they were there. One of my personal favourite relics i have is a large and very heavy chunk of French 155-mm shell. This was found in 1991 on Bolante Plateau of the Argonne Forest, France, a relic of the last big battle of WW1. The fragment when found was only partially visible in the ground and the guys who found it were not sure whether it was a complete dud round until they scraped the soil from around it and found it was a large exploded fragment. I for one would not have wanted to have this come sailing towards me at high speed. It weighs about 25lb at a guess. More interestingly is its size as most artillery shells explode into smaller fragments than this which made me think maybe the shell had hairline imperfection causing it to explode into larger less high velocity pieces, just a thought. Apparently there has since been a blanket ban imposed and collectors are no longer allowed to collect relics however insignificant from the Argonne sector. Its sad really as i can see before long this practice extending possibly to other areas. The French customs are also being very heavy on people bringing back ordnance related items now. Relics have allways been such a great and often cheap way of collecting military history and i know many who specialise only in relics. May this field of collecting continue on as its super. Whwn i received this large lump it was covered in mud which i cleaned off. I then cleaned off the surface rust before applying a metal preserver called "Cure-Rust". This returns the metal to as close to its original finnish as is possible, again just for display as its by my fireside. Even Sarah the wife insists it stays there as she likes its history. The Argonne Forest was said to have been a dreadful place to fight. One can imagine with this kind of thing flying around. Regards, Tim.