The Adventures of Fireman Bob. P2
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Filed under: Detecting Diary, Fireman Bob — Norfolk Wolf
Sorry it’s been a long while in coming, but honestly folks I’ve been up to my neck with other things; I’ve been indulging myself in my other lifelong passion, sailing. Tramping up and down the country looking for the right craft for me; I reckon I clocked up close on 2,000 miles until I eventually found what I was looking for. Some of those for sale should have been sent to the trades description people, there were some right mongrels amongst them and the people selling them didn’t bat an eyelid. Once I had found the right one for me and dickered the price down, it was a question of sailing it to a mooring closer to home. Once safely ensconced there, I couldn’t just leave it on the new mooring and not use it now could I? I better make this a long episode to make up for it.
Anyway let’s get back to Bob. We had arranged to meet up near the venue at 9.30 a.m. well, at least one of us was on time; an’ it weren’t me. I rolled up at 10.20 a.m.; it was absolutely lashing it down. The rain was like stair-rods and poor old Bob was cooped up in his motor, all the windows were so fogged it was hard to see if he was in there. I didn’t bother getting out, just flashed my lights in recognition and set off for the track way into the woods with Bob following behind.
This being the first time he had visited the site; he must have wondered what he had let himself in for. The track way leads up a hill and is comprised of sandy soil and flints, blinkin’ great potholes and bordered with hawthorn bushes and brambles; it is only used by the forest rangers with their 4×4’s, but with a bit of care you can get up there, in dry weather. I thought it was worth a go, rather than carting all the gear a long distance in that weather. Worst ways, if we got stuck we would be pushing the motors downhill! Well we did it, both of us eventually managed to get to the top and just as we parked up in a clearing, the deluge stopped and the sun came out.
Poor old Bob got out and tried rubbing out all the scratches his now less than gleaming motor had incurred from the brambles and hawthorn bushes. “A bit of the old T-Cut will sort them out mate, they’re only superficial;” I said to cheer him up. I could see that there was doubt in his eyes. (Scratches always look worse on a black motor, especially if it’s new)!
After a cup of tea out of the thermos and a fag (for me) he perked up. The sun had got his hat on and we were goin’ detecting!
Bugger it was warm! The temperature went from being really chilly to that hot, all the forest and undergrowth was steaming in the space of ¼ of an hour. Yet we still took our wet weather gear! (Just in case it changed again, you never know.)
We still had a good uphill mile to walk before we came to the actual site and by the time we reached it we were both knackered and sweaty; an opportune time for another drink and a fag to set myself up before we started.
The one good thing about the forest is that the trees are all planted in lines, so that you have avenues that are wider than the distance that you sweep the coil. Each avenue is roughly 600 to 800 metres long and for certain areas no undergrowth as the carpet of pine needles suppresses the growth.
Looking up towards where the previous finds were found at the top.
The lanes allow you to do it methodically so you know that you haven’t missed any areas.
Funnily enough, in other areas it’s full of stinging nettles that come up to your armpits! (You can see this off to the left through the trees)These would be a winter-time jobby when they have died off a bit.
I feel that I need to describe the conditions underfoot before we start. The layer of pine needles are normally about an inch or so deep, but can be as deep as 3 or 4 inches in places: so to start with we have highly aerated conditions. Scrape this away and you will find no more than an inch or so of peaty soil going into grey sandy soil. Now for the nasty bit, the grey sand can be anything from 2- 6inches deep, then you will hit orange sand, when this is wet you have real problems. The signals from the objects in this type of ground bears no resemblance to those you get on ploughed fields or pasture (Unless just beneath the surface). Invariably they would be duller rather than strident and also scratchy; if using the Goldmaxx with the iron volume this too could sound out on a good object (but whichever way the sweep, this would sound first) To give you some idea of the problems, I was trying out the latest offering from a manufacturer (I still have yet to do a report). I received a signal, the tone said iron, the readout said iron, but I dug it to see if it was a modern nail or not. Up came a complete hammered farthing from an inch or so! Not exactly confidence inspiring, especially in view of the fact that cartridges were coming out anywhere between 21 and 78 on the digital readout. That ain’t a woods machine by any stretch of the imagination! For me, it is either the Goldmaxx Power or when wet the lower frequency Adventis. It still isn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination to pull those smaller slightly deeper targets, but with diligence and concentration it can be done.
Okay let’s get back to the story.
It was decided that Bob would have the first two lanes to go up and come back on and I would take the next two; this way we could alleviate any interference that might occur between the detectors.
Bob was off like a rat up a drain pipe; he had been looking forward to this all week and couldn’t wait to get started. I occasionally caught a glimpse of him out the corner of my eye, digging away after getting a signal. To begin with this was followed by the odd mutter, but as his holes-dug started to mount up he became more voluble in his basic Anglo-Saxon. I thought to myself, “Yep he’s got another cartridge; now that one sounds a real cracker by the way he’s talking to it.” I was getting the odd Roman bronze here and there and a few bits and pieces, but as we approached the top end, signals became fewer and fewer until nothing at all. The cartridges that had been found by others were all placed against the foot of the tree nearest to them. The same scenario repeated itself on the way back down in the next lane, nothing for awhile and then the odd good signal (cartridge or otherwise) demarcating where the previous crowd had given up. We were both back at the beginning of the tracks, so it was time for a bite to eat.
I could see Bob’s pockets bulging with his finds. “So what have you found then?” I asked, “You really cleaned up by the looks of it”. Out came the cartridges, 38 in all and it seemed like a bit of Anglo Saxon for each of them! I didn’t really like to show what I’d got, but Bob forgot his woes and was really appreciative of the finds. “There is stuff to be found here, it’s just a matter of being able to understand the signal a cartridge will give off”. “But I’m frightened that I might mistake the sound for a cartridge and it will be something good”.
I explained that as far as I was concerned it was all down to percentages. A cartridge signal has a definite tone to it, hammered or other silver cannot be mistaken for it. Roman Sestertii and some Dupondii will also give a high signal, the same as a Victorian penny; small stuff will give a smaller signal than any cartridge. What can fool you is the odd Roman bronze just under the surface; these can sound like the majority of cartridges. This is what your right foot is for, use it to scrape away the surface, you will then be able to suss out the signals; the closer the coil, the better the signal. There is one cartridge that is guaranteed to fool you every time that is the metal rather than the cardboard tubed ones. These early types are absolute buggers, especially when deep and amongst the roots as it could very easily be a bronze object ala big brooch! When deep they will give a high toned signal, it is only when you have dug down beyond what would have been the coins depth do you start having misgivings and by then it’s too late; you have to keep going then don’t you?
Time to get detecting again, only this time I would leave my machine behind and walk with Bob whilst listening to his signals through my cordless phones. It would be a quick session on cartridge recognition! “Now that’s a cartridge, run your coil over again and listen, now run it slower, both ways; hear it.” “No!” “Right let me throw a coin down near it, now listen at the difference” “Yep, I can now”. “Good, let’s keep detecting”. “Nope that’s another cartridge, listen to it”.
It didn’t take Bob too long to pick it up. Mind you I did have time to go home and come back the next day and he had nearly got the hang of it by then! No seriously, it only took about half an hour until he felt confident enough for me to go back to my machine. It was no more than five minutes later when Bob let out a helluva whoop, holding up a coin and claiming his very first Roman, only a silver Denarius weren’t it. Absolutely brilliant.
He had really got the hang of things, before we finished for the day he had another couple of roman bronzes to his name as well.
That’s about it for this episode, apart from the fact that I guarantee that the next one will arrive a bit faster than this. It will be covering Bob’s first silver Celtic and his best ever days detecting.