Metal Underground- The Movie

The Metal Underground from The Salt Institute on Vimeo.

The Real Gold

  That's right. I found a solid gold bullet. They are used for killing werewolves, and sidehill gougers, and dreams of success. It turns out that five hundred years of silver bullets have caused lycanthropes to build up an immunity that can only be circumvented by the use of golden ammunition. Someone must have missed, as the bullet is intact, which means he or she was probably eaten after the stray shot plunged into the icy salt water of Penobscot Bay. This was a propitious find for me, due to the recent increase in local murders attributed to cryptozoological anomalies, and the fact that I can reuse it for self defense.

  Ok, so it's not gold. It's copper-coated lead. But I thought it was gold and got very excited for a few seconds. Physically excited. I mean, almost erotically excited. Gold! It's not gold. It looks like gold. Then I looked around at the abandoned winter beach I was detecting. The frigid waters rolling up onto the expansive, shell-strewn, nearly frozen sand of the shoreline--interrupted occasionally by cruel outcroppings of the ancient, weather battered rocks and boulders that define coastal Maine. The awful wolf moon howling in the sky and twitching on the uneasy salt sea surface. The dwindling timeless twilight of a New England February dusk settling around me, and I remember why I'm here, and what I'm really looking for, and it isn't golden bullets.

Tony Millionaire

  Do you have friends like these?  I do.

  (And if you haven't been exposed to the genius of Tony Millionaire yet, do yourself a favor and expose yourself. Expose yourself today.)

Popeye the Sailor Man

  This little weapon was found inside the wall of our house while the library was being built.  Circa late 1950's, I believe.

Heavy Metal

Damon and I went for a walk on the beach during lunch the other day and came across these two enormous pieces of iron in the sand.  We were about a half-mile away, but could not resist the urge to carry them back to the truck.  This was an agonizing endeavor and probably hilarious to witness from the window of one of the many beachside homes, as the collective weight of the two objects was over 300 lbs. 

  Both pieces were really interesting and I almost took them home to put in the yard, but figured I probably had enough giant iron rusting in my yard as it is.  Besides, these things were heavy, and at the scrap yard, heavy means money.  12 cents a pound for number one iron, to be precise, which at over 300 lbs., is pushing 40 dollars.  It's a beggar's ransom, for sure, but money is money and we already had a load of metal anyway.  Honestly, I just need excuses to go to the scrap yard.

  I love that place.  It seems to be one of the last vestiges of lawlessness and chaos left around here. The other day, one of the workers was telling me how the excavator operator dug into an RV with his bucket and hit a full sewage tank, which exploded from the pressure of methane gas inside and spewed stinking human waste hundreds of feet in every direction.  "You should have seen it," he said, laughing and taking long drags off his cigarette. "This place smelled just like somebody's rotten a##hole all day long."  And he was right.  I should have seen it.  And I'm really sorry I didn't.

Scotch Poem

  Found this in an old dictionary.  Handwritten poem on one side and typed on the other, only the typed version is not so good, as if the handwritten was the original, written by an actual "poet", and the typed version a sort of hackneyed reproduction. I guess it's open to interpretation. That is, if we have any Scottish interpreters about.

The Lamp Works

  Found inside the wall of a house under renovation in Rockland.  Actually, the house on Granite Street, where Damon and I tore the chimneys down a month or so ago.  This is a box that once held a small light bulb of the tungsten variety.

 

Tiny Military Junkyard

  I don't know if this is top-secret information, but there is a miniature military junkyard behind our house.

Marble Pin

  This little pin or button with a half-marble setting was found in Union Common.

1919 Buffalo

  Another nice buffalo nickel pulled from the forgiving soil of Rockport Park, this one with the clearly visible date of 1919; the year of the Boston Molasses Disaster, when a giant wave of molasses burst forth from an exploding storage container and swept 20 unfortunate Bostonians to their deaths. One onlooker responded to the tragedy by declaring, "It looked like a sweet way to go."

Skeletons and Indians

  Back at the park in Rockport and found this wonderful three-inch skeleton key. It's a bit bent, but then again, so am I.

  Also, another Indian Head penny, this one a rather pitted 1903, but at least the date was clear. Besides, I never get tired of finding these Indians, regardless of their condition.

  I found a few wheat pennies, too. I rarely post pics of wheaties, but I did find a 1909, which is the first year the wheat penny was printed. I will probably post a picture when it is finished soaking.

1873 Indian Head Penny

  Found this in a park in Rockport. It is one of the nicest Indians I have turned up yet. The soil in this particular park seems to have low acidity, as the the coins coming out have much less damage than those I find elsewhere.

1920's Pocket-Spill

  I paid a visit to a local park I have been wanting to check out and came up with a few items of interest: namely a beautiful Buffalo nickel with a fantastic patina (unfortunately no clear date), a 1912 Barber dime, a devastated 1880 Indian Head penny, two wheat pennies (still in the cleaning process), a nice 19th century buckle, and a pretty little bejeweled brooch from the 1800's. The Barber dime actually came out of the ground wedged between the two wheaties, the result of some unfortunate pocket-spill about a hundred years ago.

Au and Pb

  14k earring (labeled) and a great 2" antique fishing weight, both found in the park.

Catholic Iconography

  I found this great little Catholic cross in the park. I was just wondering, too, why I never find any religious medals.  This one is a beauty.

1904 Barber Dime

A brief stop in Union Common yielded yet another weathered Indian Head penny and a nice 1904 Barber dime. I suspect this park was hit heavily years ago and stripped of all its large silvers and coppers, which is why I seem to only find Indians, deep nickels, and Barber dimes. Not that I am complaining.

Two More Indians

  11 Indian Head pennies so far this year. This one is an 1890, and not in perfect shape, but will clean up alright after a few more days in olive oil.

  Also, an exhausted 1884 Indian head and a nineteenth century bottle stopper...

  All of this , by the way, still coming out of the park in Union.

Another Shield

  I found my second shield nickel in the park, though this one was in much worse shape than the last. Some soaking in vinegar revealed the 5 on the one side and the shield on the other. I will never find a date.

  Found this lovely large lady's button at a depth of about ten inches and nearly broke the thing getting it out. It is quite thin and as big as a silver dollar, with this great trademark logo on the rear. Note the "S" above the design.

  Also my ninth Indian head penny of the year... some kind of weird bottle opener... #1 key... half of a large button... Oskar's tag... a '57 wheatie... and a whatchamathingy...

  And then there's Howard...

  I also stopped by a farm last week to find a dropped ring.  I had no luck, but did dig up this interesting buckle...

Jesus First

  I haven't got out much this week, but I did find this rather battered 1868 Shield Nickel.

  Also, this great little painted metal fire hydrant, sans the man. I just added him because I couldn't resist.

  Tiny spoon for tiny soup... wonderful old brass post-skeleton key... and Jesus First.

Silver Wire Heart Ring

    I found this in the park yesterday. It's a little large for Laura's fingers and it need some straightening, but the attention to detail on the fine wire band is really nice.
    I have not been out much lately, between work and my small Saturday hand injury (see www.penobscotstone.blogspot.com), but I found a few interesting items down in Camden Harbor at low tide.

  I am particularly fond of the chain, the smallest rusty chain I have ever found. I am planning on hanging something small and rusty from it.