I found a surveyor's mark today that I don't commonly see. It was reported in place in 1951 by a surveyor who called it a "strap iron". The cross-section is 2" x 1/4" and it appears to be tempered steel considering that I wasn't able to bend it back to plumb using the force that should have done the trick if it were ordinary mild steel.
I'm thinking possibly a leaf to a car spring or some bit of agricultural machinery.
In 1951, that bit of iron and carbon alloy was at the base of a fence post at an angle point in the wire fence that then existed. I dug out bits of what looked like the decayed remains of a cedar post, so I don't have much difficulty believing that it was. Fast forward 61 years:
Yes, the pasture fence was rebuilt well off the line. Where is Richard Schaut when he's needed to post some sort of squib about the descriptions needing to be corrected now that the fence is somewhere else?
"Slay Shoe" found
Of course, Iron Pipe found as well, with 3 supporting modern surveys and faint blaze line leading to and away. Unfortunately, the "Slay Shoe" is called for in the original contract (Deed) late 1800's, as well as a RR Fish Plate and a Bolt and a call to a bridge (all of which were found also). The pipe has been relied on since it was set in the 1970's for blazing and such. But the line at the road runs through a large structure if one holds the pipe. About 30 feet between the pipe and "Slay Shoe". Pipe is by ribbon and "Slay Shoe" by metal detector. I think I'll use my Beer Leg education and call the blaze line "Casual".
The typical description for what you've found is either a flat iron or strap iron around here anyways.
I tend to call it out more like Fnd. 1/4" x 2 1/4" flat iron. That description is more than accurate to describe the corner, as opposed to simply calling it leaf spring.
Because the description should reference what it is, not what it was !
What the heck is a slay shoe
Is it a special shoe worn by an executioner for the public decapitation?
All sorts of odd iron and steel objects have been used. We have found leaf springs before. Also large files.
Really large files?
How many terrabytes does it take to make a pin-cushion?
B-)
I could see where one would not want to potentially introduce 0.04' of error using RTK to locate the punch mark on that bent steel strap. Now I get it!!!
One of the more interesting monuments
I have ever found was a double barreled shotgun barrel set as a Land Lot corner (somewhat analogous to a section corner). I have found flat irons, angle irons, various pipes (with or without fittings), rebar, smooth bars, scraper blades, axles, nails (some as small as 16d) and railroad spikes.
Andy
I have found a "harrow tooth" here and there that resemble that. The ones I was looking for when found were called out as harrow tooth on the prior records though. It seems one could get quite a few survey monuments from an old scrap Harrow.
One of the more interesting monuments
Not me personally, but one of the party chiefs for a company I worked for 25 years ago also found a set of barrels from a double barrel shotgun that had been set for a corner.
I also had a crew met at the fence near DT Houston by an old retired L@#$er and a double barrel shotgun. We got the last laugh. About a year later the executor of his estate called us to do a survey on the property for a sale.
I you can't bend it into an upright, plumb, position; what makes you think that the point you are locating was the point intended by the original surveyor?
Radar
> I could see where one would not want to potentially introduce 0.04' of error using RTK to locate the punch mark on that bent steel strap.
If you want to use RTK to get positions on the survey markers that have been bent by products of the Caterpillar Company, I see no problem. That particular marker was incidental to a survey that I'm making. If I were resurveying the tract whose corner it marks, I'd have pulled the thing and either straightened it and reset it or replaced it with a new rod and cap stamped "FD STRAP IRON" or something similar. If a marker doesn't define a definite, reproducible point (as bent markers usually do not) it isn't much of a survey monument.
> I tend to call it out more like Fnd. 1/4" x 2 1/4" flat iron. That description is more than accurate to describe the corner, as opposed to simply calling it leaf spring.
The fact that the bit of steel hadn't rusted completely through suggests that it was an a steel alloy other than ordinary mild steel. The high-strength vanadium steel used in many mechanical parts resists corrosion fairly well, which is another reason why axles and shafts made of it last so well if undisturbed.
Since the record of the 1951 survey refers to the thing as a "strap iron", I think the best practice would be to call it a "strap iron, 2 in. x 1/4 in. in cross-section".
> > I tend to call it out more like Fnd. 1/4" x 2 1/4" flat iron. That description is more than accurate to describe the corner, as opposed to simply calling it leaf spring.
>
> The fact that the bit of steel hadn't rusted completely through suggests that it was an a steel alloy other than ordinary mild steel. The high-strength vanadium steel used in many mechanical parts resists corrosion fairly well, which is another reason why axles and shafts made of it last so well if undisturbed.
>
> Since the record of the 1951 survey refers to the thing as a "strap iron", I think the best practice would be to call it a "strap iron, 2 in. x 1/4 in. in cross-section".
I would agree with that stance as well.
One of the more interesting monuments
"..fence near DT Houston by an old retired L@#$er and a double barrel shotgun."
Well that's just wrong. The day we let Lobsters carry guns, is the day we really need to revisit that Second Ammendment.
What the heck is a slay shoe
It's the scrivener's spelling of a sleigh shoe. They put them on the runners of the sleigh for protection (note one side curved and the other flat). Similar to the purpose of the rods they use on snowmobile skis these days I suppose. I did a patent search for sleigh shoe just to see, sure enough there it was.
One of the more interesting monuments
The word I consider a cuss word is one letter shorter than lobster and doesn't have an o, b, s or t.
One of the more interesting monuments
> The word I consider a cuss word is one letter shorter than lobster and doesn't have an o, b, s or t.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
L_ _ _ er?
I'm having trouble here, but my brain is still a little tired
One of the more interesting monuments
Lawyer;-)
