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Andylit

32 Cal
Joined
Sep 12, 2022
Messages
10
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Location
Eagle WI
Hello to the group. I joined in hopes of getting input identifying old black powder items I come across from time to time. I feed my obsession...err...hobby... by purchasing lots of grubby stuff at auctions in hopes of finding nuggets in the grub. I keep a piece or 2 or 3 and sell off the rest to feed the cycle.

Slowly building a nice collection. Most of my focus is on post-Civil War to 1900. Early cartridge weapons mostly, but I certainly don't walk away from nice cap & ball items when they show up. Some of the things that turn up in Grampa's old junk box are truly gems. The real trick is gaining enough education to no just blow past them out of ignorance.
 
Hello to the group. I joined in hopes of getting input identifying old black powder items I come across from time to time. I feed my obsession...err...hobby... by purchasing lots of grubby stuff at auctions in hopes of finding nuggets in the grub. I keep a piece or 2 or 3 and sell off the rest to feed the cycle.

Slowly building a nice collection. Most of my focus is on post-Civil War to 1900. Early cartridge weapons mostly, but I certainly don't walk away from nice cap & ball items when they show up. Some of the things that turn up in Grampa's old junk box are truly gems. The real trick is gaining enough education to no just blow past them out of ignorance.
Welcome! What sort of interesting things have you found?
Greetings.

Most of what turns up is iron ball molds. Some early conical molds. Remember that I am focusing on firearm related lots.
+Small hand tools that appear to be hand or "craft" made. Every now and then you find an auction where they just lump a bunch of stuff on a flat, take 1 or 2 photos and list it. The best of those are usually rural auctions where they aren't up to speed on the small stuff. Their major focus is the equipment, large tools and ag specific items. They rarely pay attention to the box of grandad's junk from the attic.

The most valuable and amazing find was a brass 3 piece Whitworth mold. Turned out to be a Peter Dyson British repro but it was still an awesome addition. Either the family or the auctioneer just swept a bunch of loose tools and molds into a box. They didn't realize the pieces were a set.

Right now I'm waiting for the moderator to approve an info request with photos of some oddball iron molds over in the shooting accessories section. I bought a wood Remington ammo box loaded with old reloading stuff. Modern molds, Ideal loading tools from the turn of the century, powder measures, black powder shotshell loading tools. Sitting on my desk, from the same box, are a handful of small tools. 2 small combination tools that have wood augers at one end. The other end of one is a T-handle that doubles as a tiny hammer and the other has a flat end that looks like it slots into a T handle. A stamped imprint on the flat obscured by surface rust. I will gently clean it to see what is "written".

Every day is an adventure.
 

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