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Welcome to the world of Metal Detecting and Treasure Hunting. This is a fascinating hobby that I enjoy because it gets me 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 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. All the detectors pictured are land detectors with the exception of the Garrett Sea Hunter Mark II and the Tesoro PIranha which can be used on wet and dry sand, in the surf and and down to 200 feet under water. These two water detectors are PI (pulse induction) detectors rather than VLF detectors. Pulse detectors work better in salt or mineralized sand conditions and tend to go deeper than the VLF detectors. 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. That's why their called land detectors. The coils of most detectors can be submerged but you have to be careful not to get the detector housing wet. If the housing gets wet and water leaks inside it may short out and ruin your detector. The Detector Button below will show you the detectors that I have or had in my arsenal. The Finds button will show you some of the great finds made by other detectorists who also enjoy this hobby. |
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One of the best sources for information on the internet about and for metal detecting is once again back on line. That site is, The Golden Olde and was run by my friend Norm in Galvaston, Texas. I only knew Norm through emails with him along with his input on many forums. Norm had many articles 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 passed on and will be missed. He had one of the best learning and reference Web Sites that has to do with Metal Detecting that can be found. I'm glad to say that John in Florida has now taken over this site. This means that all those metal detecting resources will once again be available to those who wish to learn from them. Thanks John, and good luck with the web site. 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 many 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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The Findmall Forums |
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Because I'm about an hour and a half from 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 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.
