Angle Iron as corners

They were fairly prevalent around here in the 70s and 80s and we encounter them every now and again.  We always shoot the angle point of the angle iron.

Absolutely the angle point.  We have found many.

I measure to the intersection of the leg centerlines rather than the outside or inside angle point (common angle iron doesn't actually have an inside angle point, rather it's radiused).  With small-gauge angle iron there's not much practical difference, but when the legs are 1/4" or thicker the difference is material (pun intended).

@jim-frame 

I didn’t know radiused was a word. Thanks for the vocabulary lesson.

As Calvin said to Hobbes, "Verbing weirds language."

I measure the dimple

I've found plenty. I think most were set around here between 1940-1970. They never have any self identifying information on them but I generally treat them as I would any iron pipe and measure the intersecting portion of the top if practical. There was a period in the 70s when there was a flimsy angle iron typically referred to hereabouts as a 'Grizzly'. Very flimsy and roughly in the shape of a {. Interestingly enough I've even found on these the precursor to the plastic cap, a 1/2" plastic button cap that went on them. I think I've found two or three as the plastic became very brittle. Blow on them and they crumble. 

I locate the part that fits my calcs the best....HAHAHA jk jk

In the Tucson area it was common to set an angle iron as a guard post, protecting the tagged rebar a few tenths away. Those angle irons are not the prooperty corner nor are they a reference monument. Time to get out the shovel and dig around the angle iron for the actual monument.

Same with the large ADOT angle irons painted white with the stationing printed on them. Those are there to guide you to the actual corner, an ACP in concrete usually a foot away. Most assuredly the angle irons are not the corner, although they are commonly (and incorrectly) used as the corner. Again, get out the shovel.

A shovel, the most important survey tool. Sometimes used for digging a hole in the ground. Mostly used for scraping an inch of dirt so the survey crew can report the monument is not there.

I can't remember ever finding an angle iron used as a monument. I have found them as markers for the monument, usually pulling them and listening with the detector revels the actual monument. 

Finding a spike tooth harrow tooth is another dandy experience.

Angle iron monuments aren't common around here, but they do show up now and then.  Below is a snippet from a 1962 Record of Survey.  The same monument was held on a 2003 survey, and I used it in 2017.

Think about the size of the angle iron. Compare that with the year it was set. What equipment was used during that time frame. It might not make a difference exactly where you locate it. It’s the corner. If called for and falls within the error of margin. When we set them in the 90’s the rod was set and we would simply slide the angle iron right down so neither the angle point nor an edge would be exactly going into the ground where the tip of the rod was. Mostly done on large rural boundaries. Usually because they laid around on most farms and it was available. Use to set tall ones as a witness and guard to a pipe, rebar shaft round stock square stock etc. whatever the owner wanted to use. Was usually handed to us as he told stories and rummaged around the scrap pile. 

The oldest survey that I could find of a property showed a fence all around. A more recent survey showed angle irons at the corners. But 1 of them seemed out of place about 2 feet compared to the older survey and was held as the corner of the adjacent lot. A concrete curb had been made around it. I went back and where I calculated the corner to be I got a strong magnetic signal. I chiseled away some concrete and found an angle iron fence post. I chiseled away some of the curb at the first angle iron and found it was leaning toward the other one. It was a brace for the original fence. 

During the WWII era there were massive scrap iron drives held to provide for the war effort.  That put typical survey monuments in short supply.  All sorts of other iron objects were found to supplement the need.

@holy-cow One of the PLS that I worked with told me that during the war, a factory in the area producing gun barrels had a batch rejected by the army. They were sent back and became a popular marker amongst surveyors at the time. I’ve since found a few a few of them marking some right of ways that were defined in the late 40’s.

@tony There was a surveyor in central Massachusetts, active in the 1980s (another surveyor who, I think, is his son is still active) who in 1986 surveyed a parcel that was bought decades later by friends of mine. I looked up the plan recorded by that surveyor, and it showed that he had set gun barrels as monuments at five corners. I'd heard of that being done in other states or very long ago, and it delighted me that a 1980s surveyor would have done that in very anti-gun Massachusetts.

We looked for four of the gun barrels and found all of those, 34 years after they'd been set. They looked like .30-caliber machine gun barrels, set muzzle-up. I figure they were military surplus, sold essentially as scrap, as older machine gun models and cartridges were obsoleted.

Here's a photo of one:

I have seen that around the Utica/ Ilion ny. Formerly home to remington arms. Assumed they were factory rejects sold as scrap?

Right after WWII in Fort Lauderdale a surveyor named George Brendla bought a bunch of surplus gun barrels and used them for monuments. When you found them decades later you knew that was an old monument set by one of the good ones.