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6lb spherical solid shot - with Broad arrow
- Thread starter Bully1970
- Start date
You have dug over 300 cannon balls! I live in the wrong part of the world to enable such wondrous activity & am insanely jealous!
I have not encountered anything that explains why some, and extremely few at that, British solid shot are marked with a broad arrow. I have an 18pr example, any examples are indeed rare. My own speculations are that this was an early practice, perhaps mid to late 18th century. On my example it appears to have been chiseled in, on yours it looks like it was cast in. If anyone has any info on this I would be most interested.
I have not encountered anything that explains why some, and extremely few at that, British solid shot are marked with a broad arrow. I have an 18pr example, any examples are indeed rare. My own speculations are that this was an early practice, perhaps mid to late 18th century. On my example it appears to have been chiseled in, on yours it looks like it was cast in. If anyone has any info on this I would be most interested.
The 24lbr's can be challenging if they are deep...Im yet to get a 32!
I generally check them when I dig them now but if no markings or shrapnel etc I put them back for future generations to dig!
The other one is not so pronounced marking wise but looks to be cast. Agree re being an early practice, I have read that somewhere but cant think where....
Once the other is out of the tank I'll post it up.
I generally check them when I dig them now but if no markings or shrapnel etc I put them back for future generations to dig!
The other one is not so pronounced marking wise but looks to be cast. Agree re being an early practice, I have read that somewhere but cant think where....
Once the other is out of the tank I'll post it up.
How long do you treat them for?
For shells (up to & including 32pr) I do a year of treatment in a caustic solution, changing the solution every 4 weeks initially & then every 6 weeks. Provided I get the object to me in time I have had 100% success, objects that exhibit tiny streams of microscopic bubbles when immersed are already 'gone' & always break up. I'm in Australia & getting a shell in good time from a very salty environment in the UK is the gamble I take. I have a couple of good friends who did not take the urgency seriously enough & were left with a ruin in each case, so I have witnessed the consequences of no, or delayed, treatment. I have not treated any solid shot though, as the postage on large shot is now near to prohibitive & I anyway have all the sizes acquired locally plus some I either imported or carried back in my luggage. I should add that these come absolutely empty & sometimes with an accompanying plug or fuze as a separate item.
For shells (up to & including 32pr) I do a year of treatment in a caustic solution, changing the solution every 4 weeks initially & then every 6 weeks. Provided I get the object to me in time I have had 100% success, objects that exhibit tiny streams of microscopic bubbles when immersed are already 'gone' & always break up. I'm in Australia & getting a shell in good time from a very salty environment in the UK is the gamble I take. I have a couple of good friends who did not take the urgency seriously enough & were left with a ruin in each case, so I have witnessed the consequences of no, or delayed, treatment. I have not treated any solid shot though, as the postage on large shot is now near to prohibitive & I anyway have all the sizes acquired locally plus some I either imported or carried back in my luggage. I should add that these come absolutely empty & sometimes with an accompanying plug or fuze as a separate item.
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Hi Adrian, shells generally the same as you around 1 year in caustic solution...changing regularly. Solid shot it depends on size, rule of thumb 2 years for 6lbr, 3-5 for anything larger (up to 24lb) I will pull them and if they show surface rust moisture beads which show chlorides are still present and pulling moisture from the air then back in the tank they go. Its a balancing act as if they are out of the tank for too long then they might go too far...I've lost a couple of solid shot 6lbr's by not keeping my eye on the ball which was very frustrating.
Thanks for that, the thicker metal needing longer certainly makes sense. When finished I clean mine, warm them up & coat the outside with Renaissance Wax. I also melt some solid micro crystalline wax in an old tin, pour that in, sluice around to coat the entire inner surface & pour out the excess while it is still hot. This seals them from atmospheric interference.
