An Unexpected Journey: A Newbie's Walk In Wet Shaving

[Blade-meister]

What you identify as a belt. Could it be a rifle sling? That's what I thought upon seeing the pic.

I hadn't thought of that. Hmmmmm, I'll have to do some research on that and report back. Thanks for suggesting that!

Update.............he was right, and it looks like it was from a WWI Springfield possibly? Early 1900's for sure if not late 1880's! That's quite a surprise! Thank you for suggesting it. I'm going back out to detect that area again to see if the other one is there.

 

[Blade-meister]

Here's what the whole rifle sling most likely looked like.





The earliest ones were made out of brass with the later ones being made out of steel. They were used in both WWI and WWII. There is no mark on it to indicate the date as the leather on the sling was sometimes stamped with the date. Pretty darn interesting! I believe mine is brass.

 

[Maryland998]

This is one of mine. Parkerized steel with copper rivets. ‘43. But not sure if the stamps are correct. USMG? But it is correct for WWII GI issue.
Glad to help send you down another rabbit hole. .

 

[Blade-meister]

This is one of mine. Parkerized steel with copper rivets. ‘43. But not sure if the stamps are correct. USMG? But it is correct for WWII GI issue.
Glad to help send you down another rabbit hole. .

Mine is definitely brass after looking at a place I scratched it when digging it up. I moved my metal detector over it and yep, it rang up a high 85 which is where brass rings when I find it. Mine might date earlier, but I'm thinking most likely it came from WWII. I'll revisit that spot and see if another on turns up. It's a rabbit hole for sure, but I love to know the history of stuff because it transforms it from "junk" to something special. I love learning new things, so thanks!

 

[Blade-meister]

Decided to take the afternoon off and go metal detecting at my parents house. Nothing spectacular, just some 70's pennies and a 70's quarter. I did scan the area where our sand box used to be and found some pieces of old cars me and my brothers must have buried and forgot about. It was neat seeing things that were most likely mine. I found a metal buckle from one of our snow pants too. While walking the dog I decided to quick-like scan the trails. I got some really good signals, silver signals so once I'm sure the ground is thawed completely I will be checking those spots out again. They showed at over 8 inches down, so that's a good sign. I'm positive one is a coin. It was neat to find the 70's coins knowing my Dad probably lost them when he was clearing the lawn for the house to be built. I even found a penny in the sandbox area!

I'll keep everyone posted on what turns up. Silver coins and any coins from the 1800's are still eluding me. That's the goal for this year, to find a silver coin and a coin from the 1800's.

 

[Blade-meister]

Well guys, I've been busy metal detecting. In my yard, I've finally found a few more Wheat Cents with the oldest know 1935 and in very fine condition for being in a pile of dirt. When I had some foundation work done on my house I had the excess dirt from the front lawn taken up on my hill. That has all the good stuff in it! I found 2 1960's quarters, an old Timex wrist watch, and the 1935 Wheat Cent.

I've had permission to hunt my friend's 1840's built house in town for a while now and just decided to get out there Saturday. All total I dug almost $3 in modern clad coins, a bunch of neat house related items which I will clean up and give back to the owner, and my first silver coin. My goal this year was to find a silver coin and an 1800's coin, so I can check off the silver. It was a 1940 Mercury Dime and it was in super great shape for it's age. I think it was lost right around 1940 because Mercury Dimes get worn pretty good after being in the pocket with other change. Super great age for being 81 years old and spending most of her life 6 inches down in the dirt. I found a dime spill of 3 or 4 dimes in the same area and quarters all over the place near the side walk. Folks gathered there for parades for years so I think that's what there are so many. Guys, I spent over 4 hours at this house and only covered the front yard! Lots of metal nails which I can eliminate with my detector, but just lots and lots of signals to sort through. I know I missed some stuff. I hope to get to the back lawn. I went down there for the last 15 minutes and dug a good signal which turned out to be junk metal, but below it was the old bottle which was a bonus. I actually think I found the outhouse because the soil was really dark there.

 

[Blade-meister]

Now I hope to get that 1800's coin...............

 

[Blade-meister]

So I was thinking while shaving this morning about BBS. I'm really over pursuing it every morning. I'll go after it with a new blade, but I can get a super good shave without irritation by just not chasing BBS. I let it happen when it happens and don't hassle myself too much about it. Lately I've also discovered that with my face, timing a "J" hook technique is everything in my shaves. I find doing it a little bit on the first WTG pass is great for some problem areas. On my second pass I've discovered that with my XTG (ear to nose) stroke a slight "J" hooking technique on my problem cheek areas really works well. I could stop really with just 2 passes with the Variant and a Feather blade and get a decent shave, but a final ATG pass is needed for a great shave. I'm still using William's Mug Soap and the shower shave. Once a week I treat myself to Mystic Water Bay Rum. I'm really happy with this and haven't shaved outside the shower for quite some time now. It's a time saver for me for sure.

Not much else to report on the manly pursuit side of things.

 

[Fightingillini22]

Yessir, I stopped chasing BBS years ago after discovering it was leading to more irritation and overall dissatisfaction with my daily shave. I've found a single pass hybrid WTG/XTG with touchups in some places ATG results in an effortless DFS and an occasional BBS. Zero muss. Zero fuss.

All about finding what works for you!

 

[Graybeard57]

Yessir, I stopped chasing BBS years ago after discovering it was leading to more irritation and overall dissatisfaction with my daily shave.

I first learned this years ago, but lately I've been chasing BBS with the Vector. Sometimes the results are near perfect, other times there may be irritation and/or bloodletting. About a week ago I decided to quit chasing BBS and and have mostly adhered to it, except today I got excited when I convinced myself that I only had 2 whiskers left on my chin - get these and it'd be BBS. I got them, but the razor got me, too. Operator error no doubt.

 

[Blade-meister]

Yessir, I stopped chasing BBS years ago after discovering it was leading to more irritation and overall dissatisfaction with my daily shave. I've found a single pass hybrid WTG/XTG with touchups in some places ATG results in an effortless DFS and an occasional BBS. Zero muss. Zero fuss.

All about finding what works for you!

Sounds like I'm discovering about the same, but I'm still doing 3 passes. I wish every shave could be like the first shave after putting in a new Feather blade. I get 3 delightful shaves and then they start going down hill a little bit each day. I try to get 5-6 days out of one blade. I have tough facial hair, so these guys that hyper-mile a blade with 30 shaves just amaze me. If I use anything but a Feather, I only get 3 shaves from a blade. Luckily my wife uses the blades after me so they get used up really well.

get these and it'd be BBS. I got them, but the razor got me, too. Operator error no doubt.

Yup, been there before too. You know, it rarely hurts while you doing it. I've been blade buffing, chasing that perfect shave and it doesn't feel bad when I'm doing it and then later I notice it was a bad idea. I'm nursing irritation the rest of the week.

Today I got another notch on the man card. I welded for the first time. I bought a welder last year and just put it off and put it off. I had a push-mower that the wheel broke off of it, so I cobbed it up with large washers and when it gave way a large quarter size piece of metal just popped out leaving a big hole and a crack down the mower deck. It was our old mower, but I wanted to get her going again so I can use it to mow my trails in the woods and not worry about breaking the new mower. This morning I just went for it. I clamped that piece into place and welded that piece of metal right back in where it belonged. Once I got my wire feed rate where it should be I started getting better welding patterns. A little angle grinding and then the wheel went right back on and the mower works great! I think my chest hair thickened afterward Now I'm thinking about what needs welding, and if it doesn't need welding what could I make that would need welding!

Since I got my honey-do list done this morning and just after lunch, I got to play in the afternoon. I went out in my woods with my metal detector and found several different bullet casings and even the lead bullets. I found the top of a milk can with the handles still in great shape, so I lugged it home to reuse in some future project. I walked across a hay field that's been farmed at least since the 30's. I was hoping to find a random coin drop or perhaps a bell from sheep or even some buckles from horse tackle. I found a silver buckle and was quite excited because it was heavy like real silver, but when I got it home and cleaned up it was only silver plated over copper or brass. I'm getting quite the bullet collection. Some are mine and I'm amazed just where they went after I shot a target. Lots of fun and more of an afternoon of exploration than anything. I could have went to a park and found dropped coins, but just felt like exploring hoping to find that random dropped nice thing. Didn't happen though.

 

[dangerousdon]

Just catching up. A lot of really cool things. What a great hobby!

 

[Blade-meister]

Just catching up. A lot of really cool things. What a great hobby!

Yeah it is, and addictive too. I literally want to go out and metal detect ever night when I get home. I've had to ratchet that desire back so I get to projects that need doing. I always wished I could see what was in the ground under my feet, and this is almost a way to do that. Every boy growing up with superheros always wanted X-ray vision so I think it plays on that and the desire to find buried treasure. I talk to so many guys that have them sitting in the back of their closet and don't use them because they didn't find much. I think even the less impressive things are neat. I started a bullet casing collection along with the various forms of spent bullets that I find. Some missed their targets and just fell to the ground when velocity stopped and gravity took over. Some you can tell hit a tree and bounced in a different direct while others really look like they hit an animal, punched through it, then came to a violent skidding end in the ground. Pretty neat my detector even finds the tiny spent bullets of .22 cal's.

Everything tells a story, and I think you have to like the story more than anything. I know the person who hunted on my land really loved to use a 16 gauge shotgun. It's my choice for hunting as well. I find his casings - old casings - all over. There's a story there.

 

[Blade-meister]

I thought I'd give a metal detecting update.

I went to a local park to kind of hone my skills in sifting through the junky signals to find the good stuff. The park was made in the early 2000's so I wasn't expecting great things but I knew there would be change laying around. I figured out how soda can tops sounded after digging 4 of them and was able to ignore those. I found some quarters, a dime and a couple of pennies all from 1982 up. Then I found something unusual..............................an old harmonica reed. These old reeds date from 1821 on up to just before WWI so that's quite a span of time but a clue that the park was not all that was on this land and that there was a richer history. The next trip I found more modern change and a large square nail. The nail was more proof that this was an old site below the park. I did some historical research on some 1860's and 70's maps and figured out that one of the founders of my particular town owned that land arriving in 1791. The park is located on some of the farm fields and his house and sawmill are located in a different place which I will seek permission to check out. This particular fellow was the 1st cousin of Aaron Burr, Thomas Jefferson's VP (he also killed Alexander Hamilton in a pistol duel!)



Here's the harmonica reed. Notice the different length square slots that produced different notes. I think this one is made out of brass. The thing below it is a key ring for veterans that used to have a copy of their license plate on the reverse side so that if they ever lost their keys they would be mailed back to them free of charge. I found the key ring on my property (the second one so far)



Here's a picture of the better things I've found so far. I put them in a spare case to display them. Most of it was found on my property except the Mercury dime, the harmonica reed, and a few of the modern coins.



Here's a picture of the religious pilgrimage coin that is up in the middle of the left grouping of coins. It is for St. John's Cathedral in NYC. Catholics collect these coins sometimes to document their religious pilgrimages. One the reverse side its got the church. Boy I thought it was an old large cent piece when it first came out of the ground. It was very encrusted with patina and ground elements. I've sorta cleaned it enough so that you can tell what it is. It probably dates to the 1960's or so.

 

[GearNoir]

Awesome finds! Really interesting on the Pilgrimage Coin!

 

[Blade-meister]

Awesome finds! Really interesting on the Pilgrimage Coin!

It was a pretty neat coin. For Catholics it would be a way to remember their Catholic pilgrimage journeys to all their important places. Man that thing looked just like an old large cent but it wasn't deep enough so I had suspicions.

 

[Blade-meister]

I had a pleasant surprise this week. A coworker knew I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan, so she brought in her late mother in law's Frodo and Sam figurines. I can't think of a better example of a team than Frodo and Sam. Frodo wouldn't have gotten very far without Sam. I put them on one of my man shelves. I think it's the perfect spot!



For low end replicas, I thought they were pretty well done and the fact they can be posed in different positions is kinda neat too.

I got out in the woods today and cleared the old Indian trail that is above the old turnpike road on my property. Chainsaw running, brush clearing, tree saw..........it got the manly blood flowing. It's going to become my favorite trail I think. While walking the dog this evening, I always pay attention to what he's doing, so when I saw him stiffing nose-up in the air toward the upper meadow I knew something was up there. We went up to the ridge from the trail and I saw a bleached skeleton up there. Gotta check that out so we went up there and found a spike antlered deer that had been killed by something this winter. I found deer hair on one of my trails this spring and thought the deer got away, but it looks like he didn't make it. Since I wanted those antlers, I dragged the skull w/ ribs & spine attached and stuck it up in a tree so the coyotes wouldn't drag it away. I'll go get the leg bones on another trip. The leg bones make excellent knife handles!

While mowing the trails this afternoon I also found some dog bane. Dog bane was used for cordage by the Indians and I've harvested quite a bit of it over the years but never found any on my property so I was pleased to find it. Now that I know where it is, I can go harvest it in the early winter. You have to wait until early winter so that all the poisonous sap is gone from the stalk and the stalk has hardened up nice. You crack the stalk into quarters, then snap off the inner pith and then you have 4 long pieces of tough fiber material that can be twisted into cordage to make bow strings or just about anything. You can haft an arrowhead with it and some pine pitch glue if you want to. Handy stuff to have around.

 

[dangerousdon]

So when are you writing a memoir? Seriously, I know you think people would find your adventures boring...but I love them! Some really nice finds...with the metal detector and without!

 

[Blade-meister]

So when are you writing a memoir? Seriously, I know you think people would find your adventures boring...but I love them!

My life has definitely been an adventure, but probably not much more so than most other people. I think manhood is like a great white elk. You have to pursue it, hunt it, stay on it's trail even if you never catch it to get a shot at it. It's the hunt of manliness where I find the most fulfillment and when I catch a glimpse of that elusive white elk of testosterone I consider myself fulfilled on some level. My journey, my hunt is not an adrenaline junky's type thing, but a slow hunt - always tracking and hunting the white elk. It usually takes me on the paths less traveled and occasionally I get laughed at by men on the main road, but I don't care and stopped caring a long time ago critical thinkers.

Years ago I was on the sidelines seeing other men chase the great white elk. I had a life then that didn't permit the pursuit, but I always longed to be on the hunt. I promised myself that I would someday join the hunt and once I started going down that road I couldn't go back to sitting on the sidelines wishing I could do things. One year I got a book on deadly skills. After reading it, I decided to try one each month that was legal to try. It led me to learn to make a key out of a soda can to open a lock - stuff like that. To me that's fun stuff and just another skill to tuck away for a time you might need it. Fun stuff! It's not for every man though and probably looks different for each man. The important thing I find is that you join the hunt and keep hunting. The most miserable men I've ever know are men who don't have hobbies or other manly pursuits. They always seem lost to me.

 

[Blade-meister]

I got out and did a few things today and it felt good to check them off the list. I finished a pipe tomahawk order (posted pictures on my hobby page too) then I got out to the cabin. I had a lot of left over hemlock from the outside so I fitted boards to put down for the loft floor. I really enjoy staggering the boards and making it look nice. I could have done most all of them in one piece, but how boring would that be? This gave it the old barn floor look. I'm debating rather I should plane them or just lightly sand them. Since we are selling our property and moving south I really don't want to put too much more effort into the cabin. It is sad to move, but NY is just not a state we wish to live in anymore. The housing market is really crazy now so we can get a hefty sum for our house and property with the money doing really well in some southern states. Our plan is not to be northerners living in the south, but become southerners. Too many northerners bring their northern ways and destroy good southern states when we should be assimilating to the culture and the people.

Here's a picture of the tomahawk I finished today for a customer who's been waiting quite a while for it. Curly maple handle, brass head, and pewter mouthpiece.