Just wondering how other surveyors would describe these monuments.
I have been told that the curved rod is from a potato picker.
The other one looks like those cheap T-posts that are sold at the hardware store for the garden. There was a entire subdivision staked with this monument.
KENT, we need your input 
The second one, I call a "Light duty U Post".
The first one, I'd resort to Adjectives....
As matter of fact, I resort to adjectives when I don't understand what it is.
Something like:
"Found 1/2" dia steel rod, Up 9", with bent and angled top"
Another surveyor, finding this, would know he was looking at the same thing....
Another answer, is to pull one out, stick a rod in the hole, (To keep the location) and take it to the local hardware store, and coffee shop, and often by nightfall, somebody will help.
Of course, a pic on RPLSTODAY, might reveal it's actual name, and purpose.... 🙂
N
Sort of makes you wonder exactly where you are supposed to take a shot on the potato picker rod.
Holy Cow, post: 423602, member: 50 wrote: exactly where you are supposed to take a shot on the potato picker rod.
The dimple?
:p
billvhill, post: 423595, member: 8398 wrote: Just wondering how other surveyors would describe these monuments.
I have been told that the curved rod is from a potato picker.
Whatever it is, it should be safe to conclude that where the vertical section of the rod enters the ground is the location of the corner marked. I'd guess that the weather-beaten plastic cap was probably something added later by a surveyor who found the piece of junk in the ground and was obliged to add his identifying cap to it.
I have to describe this on a map:
Any suggestions?
xx dia iron rod with knob marked/stamped (numbers that I can't quite make out)
David Kendall, post: 423646, member: 12659 wrote: Any suggestions?
Looks like: A dimple in a 2 1/2"(?) iron cap stamped 5299 on a 1"(?) iron pipe...
Looks like a blivet to me.
David Kendall, post: 423646, member: 12659 wrote: have to describe this on a map:
It looks like a door knob. Maybe an inch below the wrap of flagging, and just barely to the left behind a piece of bark in the picture, is what looks like a drilled hole, possibly for a pin of some type. I might be imagining that though.
"Round knob lookin thing" would go in the field book.
If i used it, as a corner, I'd probably pull it out, and inspect the "rest of it".
I once rejected a "fd axle".
I pulled it out. It was the back part of the speaker, 6"x9". It did look like an axle... But it wasn't.
David Kendall, post: 423646, member: 12659 wrote: I have to describe this on a map.
Any suggestions?
That's a tent stake, but around here they're called buttonheads. After WWII one of the local surveying/engineering shops bought pallets of them, and they're everywhere in the county. The design varies some, but they're typically a 1" diameter by 36" long pipe with a solid top welded on. I think the bottom end is welded closed into a point, but it's been many years since I've pulled one up.
I went looking for photos of a buttonhead tent stakes, either new or vintage, thinking they'd be easy to find, but so far I've come up empty. Now I'm wondering if the surplus tent stake story I've believed all these years is legit. In addition to the term buttonhead, I've also seen them described as "iron pipe with driving head," but so far no photos of a production item under that moniker, either.
More research would seem to be in order.
Here's something similar:
http://www.ecanopy.com/oht-30stakes.html?gclid=CJ_V_c7Sp9MCFUk8gQodokEFXQ&refnum=APR-542-8239
And even closer:
Kent McMillan, post: 423611, member: 3 wrote: Whatever it is, it should be safe to conclude that where the vertical section of the rod enters the ground is the location of the corner marked. I'd guess that the weather-beaten plastic cap was probably something added later by a surveyor who found the piece of junk in the ground and was obliged to add his identifying cap to it.
I agree with the location being the vertical section going into the ground. I think the cap was from the original surveyor, I found one disturbed and buried which preserved the cap, LS697
See sketch at right...
"Center at Ground Level of old 5/8 in. Steel Rod found (approx 10 in. Up; Smooth Rod), the top 3 inches of which have been bent to resemble a Pretzel, with an old, severely weathered Red Plastic Cap (imprint nearly illegible, but appears to read "ALF NEUMAN ENG") affixed to the Upper End in a Horizontal position Pointing toward Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania"
billvhill, post: 423595, member: 8398 wrote: Just wondering how other surveyors would describe these monuments.
I have been told that the curved rod is from a potato picker.
The other one looks like those cheap T-posts that are sold at the hardware store for the garden. There was a entire subdivision staked with this monument.
KENT, we need your input
Bottom one looks like what I've seen and recovered from several 70's era subdivisions around here. Identified here anyway as a 'Grizzly'. Rarely do I find the original plastic button caps that went on them. The plastic got brittle over time and crumbled.
David Kendall, post: 423646, member: 12659 wrote: I have to describe this on a map:
Any suggestions?
Found unusual iron rod-see corner record
Then file a cor rec with a picture of it. Of course they only cost between 0 and 5 dollars here without review
MightyMoe, post: 423677, member: 700 wrote: Found unusual iron rod-see corner record
Then file a cor rec with a picture of it. Of course they only cost between 0 and 5 dollars here without review
While describing monuments may be a lost art, that isn't any particular reason to abandon words. If one keeps in mind that the purpose of the description should balance economy (and how much does a few lines of text added to a map cost?) with enabling some future surveyor to identify the thing you've described with some reasonable certainty.
The late 19th and early 20th century surveyors in Central and West Texas faced a somewhat similar challenge in describing exactly which topographic feature they had taken a bearing to. They typically were able to solve that problem in less than two lines of text.
