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Metal Detecting
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Welcome to the world of Metal Detecting and Treasure Hunting. This is a fascinating hobby that we enjoy because it gets us out in the fresh air and sunshine. It's also a great way to get some exercise without thinking of it as such. Metal Detecting can be done just about any where on land, at the beach in the dry or wet sand, in the surf, or if you've been trained in SCUBA Diving, under water.
If you have lost or found a Class Ring and don't know how to return it, click the Class Rings link to the left. There you can get information, by state, on class rings that have been lost or found.
You can also do your own research by checking with the local library and high school. Most libraries in smaller communities that only have one high school or are in regional school districts get free copies of the year books each year. These may be kept in a special room and you may have to ask the local librarian for help.
If you know the year of graduation it should be a simple matter of finding the person in the year book and then hopefully the phone book. If that person isn't listed in the phone book then take a trip to the high school and see if they can give you a more current address, phone number or even an e-mail. If they ask you for the ring and say they will return it then I would say "No Thank You, I'd rather return it myself". If you give them the ring then there is no guarantee that you or the owner will ever see it again.
If you have found a class ring and intend on returning it, be sure to take a picture of it so you will have that as part of your collection. It's also not a bad idea to take some one with you so they can take a picture of you returning the ring to it's owner.
Gold rings and other pieces of jewelry that you find may not always have the Karat Number stamped on them. For example 10K, 18K or 24K may not be on the piece you found. Instead it may be in decimal format. The chart below will let you convert the decimal and identify what the karat equivalent is. This chart was picked up on the internet and my thanks go to Steve in So. AZ for this information.
Silver S.G. pure 10-5, standard 10-31; a lustrous black metal, malleable and ductile used in jewelry and for ornamental and utility articles. Standard silver has 925 parts of pure silver with 75 parts of alloy to the 1,000.
Platinum S.G. 21-5; a hard and ductile grayish-black metal used for mounting gemstones, particularly diamonds. The metal has a high melting point (1755 C.) hence is employed where heat resistance is required.
I have used a variety of metal detectors on dry land and on the wet sand at the beach as well as in the water. There are basically two types of metal detectors, VLF (very low frequency) and PI (pulse induction). A VLF machine will allow you to discriminate out the junk metal that you don't want, such as bobbie pins, nails and small pieces of iron and a variety other junk. PI machines work better in salt or mineralized sand conditions and tend to go deeper than the VLF detectors. The only draw back to them is that you can't discriminate out any junk. Whatever you find you have to dig to see if it's any good.
Both these detectors work well in fresh and salt water here in the northeast U.S. All the land detectors can also be used in the dry sand at the beach but can only get wet to about 12-24" deep, which means the coils are water proof and part of the shaft, but not the control housing. If salt water gets into the control housing it will do quite a bit of damage to the electronics of that unit.
The Detector Button will show you pictures of the detectors that I have owned and used.
The Finds button will show you some of the great finds made by other detectorists who also enjoy this hobby. |
Because of travel distance to the ocean, most of my detecting is done inland at parks, schools and playgrounds. When the weather gets real hot, then its time to head for the fresh water beaches and the ocean because when the ground inland dries out and just gets too hard to dig. Fresh water detecting and detecting on the beaches at the ocean is by far my favorite. You probably figured that out from the name of this web site.
Have you ever walked along on a sandy beach or in the water on the wet packed sand? If you did, just stop and think of how much treasure you walked over, or even stepped on without knowing it. Just inches below the surface you can find treasure at the beach. I just love being at the beach and swinging the detector not knowing what I'll find. I've found a few rings, coins, toy cars, bottles (caps are metal) and even some pieces of metal that I have no idea what they were. You just never know what the tide will wash in next.
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One of the best sources for information on the internet for and about metal detecting is The Golden Olde and was run by my friend Norm in Galvaston, Texas. Norm had many articles he had written on just about everything you can think of that has to do with metal detecting. About the only thing he didn't do was sell them. Norm has since passed on and will be missed by the metal detecting community. He had one of the best educational and reference Web Sites that has to do with Metal Detecting that can be found. His web site is no longer being updated, but the information can still be found in the archive area. A few pictures and photos may be missing, but all of the information that he gathered and wrote about metal detecting is still there for all to learn and enjoy.
To see what other metal detecting web sites look like, click a site from the list below. Presently the list is small, but I'm hoping to add more sites as they become available to me.
For a change of pace if you would like to read what others have to say about metal detecting, what they have found, where they search, how they search, plus a whole bunch of other information, just click on one of the forums listed below.
If this is your first visit to a forum and you find something of interest to you, don't hesitate, go ahead and ask questions. People on these forums are generally very friendly and are willing to help any new comers interested in this hobby. The best part is that you can get to many forums from one location. Just click the link below and your on your way there.
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