Archaeological Tools of the Golden Age

[Mojave Jack]

Grease pen colors: They were mostly black. There was a couple of white ones, a red one, a blue one, and I believe a green one as well. If I see any others while cleaning, I'll post and let you know, but I think if you just got a few black ones, that would probably suffice for most purposes.

Great, thanks! I have a black and a red, but I will probably use the black almost exclusively anyway.

Here's a couple photos of the gear so far:

Here's my mason's bag with all my gear currently stored, along with my White Midget Transit, tripod, and stadia rod (on top of its canvas carrying bag). The box for the transit is currently disssembled, since it need a good cleaning, sanding, and treatment with some tung oil.

Here's the current contents of the bag.

Starting at the front and working back (boustrophedonically), are (impossibly) clean chaining pins; 100' steel tape; three types of drafting dividers; carpenter's rule in inches and tenths of inches; three firm joint calipers; tool roll with the smaller chip brushes, acid brushes, dental picks, plumb bob, and line level (with case); whisk broom; larger chip brush; canvas map roll; chalk boards and chalk; twine; trowel; bellows camera and case; 50' tape; geology hammer; 4# sledge; Esselte notebook; grease pencils; Esterbrook pen; jeweler's loupe; clipboard; and canvas bags for odds and ends.

The mason's bag is great for the lighter stuff, but the heavier stuff that tends to break other things, like the sledge, and stuff that will get really dirty, like chaining pins, will go into a box that until very recently held hand grenades. It's your standard wooden crate with rope handles and a lid.

Other things are on their way, like this c. 1918 engineer's compass.

This also doesn't even touch on the big stuff, like tables, screens, chairs, canvas awning, plus all the stakes, shovels, picks, rakes, etc. I could open my own hardware store...well, except that I pretty much just have one of each!

 

[Mojave Jack]

This sounds awesome. I'd love to see photos when you're all kitted up!

This summer while working on a site in Texas, several of the toolkits had line levels that must have been at least 40 years old. They were still in much better shape than some of the plastic modern ones!

I just found a couple on ebay. try looking up 'aluminum line level', or especially 'Stanley line level'. IIRC, The ones (Stanley brand) I saw while at field school had a hexagonal cylinder, but the round ones may be the older model- there's even a BIN one listed as marked with a 1935 patent, so that type might be what you're looking for.

EDIT: I just saw an octagonal one patented in 1921 (non stanley- look up "octagon line level" on ebay)... so round may not necessarily be older!

Oh, and JD, thanks for the tip! I scored this little beauty not long after you posted, and it just showed up today (hence the impetus to finally post some pics!):

It's a beaut, and came with the case. I can't tell you how many line levels I've broken becasue they clip down into my pack somewhere and get crushed. I just rolled the line level up inot my tool roll in the case, and it should be pretty safe.

 

[MPicciotto]

Very nice!!!

Is that tool bag that you called a masons bag made by Klein Tools? Makers of electrical tools. It looks very much like a Klein tool bag.

Matt

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's a great looking layout -- but *please* peel the UPC sticker off the mallet handle!!!

 

[Mojave Jack]

Very nice!!!

Is that tool bag that you called a masons bag made by Klein Tools? Makers of electrical tools. It looks very much like a Klein tool bag.

Matt

It's a Klein knockoff, and I probably would have been further ahead to spend the money on a Klein. I'm not crazy about the Klein silkscreen, though. Have they always had that?

That's a great looking layout -- but *please* peel the UPC sticker off the mallet handle!!!

lol lol lol

That's funny you picked up on that, Lizzie! I've been trying to peel that stupid thing off for weeks, but it wouldn't come off. It (and the other two on the other side) bugged me so much in this pic that they had to go. Obviously Golden Age sledges didn't have labels saying "WARNING! Striking yourself repeatedly in the head with this item may cause permanent brain damage and/or a desire to buy Britney Spear's latest album!" Well, a quarter of a bottle of Goo Gone and some sore fingernails later, all three labels have been successfully removed! I figured they would eventually wear off, but I've had this hammer for two years, and they still look brand new! I've had that trowel since about 1998, and the sticker is still on that, too. Crazy Marshalltown!

The geology hammer, on the other hand, is brand new. My rubber handled version wasn't cutting it, so I picked this one up recently. Here's another good reason to carry a good geology hammer:

Another Reason to Carry Your Hammer

 

[MPicciotto]

Love the story about the hammer "it has a square end and a pointy end"

As for the Klein tool bags and for that matter other tools. My older Klein bag has the silk screen but as it's a timeless design I don't know if the bag I have is 10 years old or 50 years old. It looks like it's 50 but considering the way it was stuffed into the back of a toolbox of a utility body truck at the gas company by a man who didn't take good care of his tools it might be closer to ten years old. So short answer. Don't know. If you do decide to go the Klein route check eBay or flea markets. I bought one dirt cheap at a flea market once and sold it on eBay for many times my money but still about half of the retail price. So everybody was happy. Well maybe not the original seller, but he didn't know or he'd have charged more

Matt

 

[MPicciotto]

Where can I get a Stadia rod? I assume that is the "measuring stick" in laymans terms? I have an absolutely wonderful and classic surveyors sight (I think it's not a transit because it doesn't tilt to do the grade) Looks just like this one down to the box and tripod:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dietzgen-Survey...oryZ4087QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I've thought about selling it. But I use it on occasion!! I used it to sight my fence line when I laid it out. And I'll probably use it next spring when I build the wife a pond. I've used a 2x4 and a sharpie so far but a proper stadia rod would be nice.

Matt

 

[Mojave Jack]

Where can I get a Stadia rod? I assume that is the "measuring stick" in laymans terms? I have an absolutely wonderful and classic surveyors sight (I think it's not a transit because it doesn't tilt to do the grade) Looks just like this one down to the box and tripod:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dietzgen-Survey...oryZ4087QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I've thought about selling it. But I use it on occasion!! I used it to sight my fence line when I laid it out. And I'll probably use it next spring when I build the wife a pond. I've used a 2x4 and a sharpie so far but a proper stadia rod would be nice.

Matt

If your instrument doesn't tilt, it's probably an automatic level, also called a dumpy level. They're typically used on a job site so the foreman can check the work as it progresses. Most equipment operators and so forth carry a hand-held sight level to check their work as they go, and it is periodically checked with the dumpy level to keep everything true. Levels are slightly different than transits, since transits are meant to measure distance as well as height. Transits have an extra set of horizontal hairs in the reticle, called stadia hairs, and when you subtract the bottom number from the top number (called the stadia interval), then multiply the stadia interval by 100, you get the distance from the instrument to the rod.

The stadia rod is also called a leveling staff (or just level staff), a level grade rod, a transit stick,...all kinds of things! There's also a couple different kinds, self-reading rods and target rods. The target rod has a little disk that the rodman slides up or down until it is centered in the crosshairs on the transit, and the rodman then reads the height. In a self-reading rod (also called a speaking rod) the operator reads the height through the scope. I've seen them called all kinds of things on eBay, where I found mine. I think I got lucky because the person I got mine from really didn't know what it was. This thing is built like a piece of furniture, with brass hardware and of some sort of hardwood. I'd hate to have to carry cross-country, though!

This is all very generally true, however, since there are about a gazillion different types of instruments with varying capabilities. My transit, for example, doesn't have the stadia hairs, so even though it is a transit, it can't measure distance unless you use a target rod.

 

[FlArchaeologist]

I had the same problem with the sticker on my Marshalltown's.....eventually just took a pocket knife to it and carefully scraped it off carefully....and it took awhile cause it just didn't want to let go!

Great collection you've got going Mojave....keep up the good work! We tried a similar display a few months back for a public archaeology program, but we were comparing the 19th century archaeology methods here in Florida to those today.....was an interesting and fun time, but we ended up just borrowing the specialty equipment...not investing in it like yourself! I'm definitely interested in seeing how your project turns out in the end .

Cheers,

 

[Mojave Jack]

I had the same problem with the sticker on my Marshalltown's.....eventually just took a pocket knife to it and carefully scraped it off carefully....and it took awhile cause it just didn't want to let go!

Great collection you've got going Mojave....keep up the good work! We tried a similar display a few months back for a public archaeology program, but we were comparing the 19th century archaeology methods here in Florida to those today.....was an interesting and fun time, but we ended up just borrowing the specialty equipment...not investing in it like yourself! I'm definitely interested in seeing how your project turns out in the end .

Cheers,

Hi, Adam,

Thanks for the feedback and the encouragement!

Speaking of feedback, I'd really like to hear about the program you put together, and how it went. I can use all the advice I can get, and could probably really benefit from your experience! Please feel free to PM me, and we can continue more in depth, if you like.

 

[FlArchaeologist]

PM on the way!

 

[Mojave Jack]

OK, so here's an odd question, and I'm just throwing this out for some brainstorming!

I just picked up some manila tags, like these below, for tagging artifacts. Storing the artifacts in the field isn't a problem, since I can put them in those small brown paper bags like they used to put candy in at the dime store. I foolishly opened the cellophane bundle of the smaller tags, which are now all over the desk!

So that started me thinking on small period containers to put things in, like cigar boxes, tea boxes, coffee cans, etc. Anybody know of some products today that come in good containers that might fit the bill, or other period type containers? I've already asked Nick Charles to see if he can hunt up a couple decent cigar boxes for pencils, erasers, etc, but a couple boxes or cans for these tags and other assorted small items would be nice.

Since archeologists are typically poor (speaking from experience, of course!) and the Campbell's were not only poor, but were homesteading out in the middle of nowhere, I figured they probably re-utilized all kinds of things for their field equipment.

 

[scotrace]

How the heck did I miss this thread??? The information and collections are amazing! Great job Jack!!!

 

[Mojave Jack]

Thanks, Scott!

I just missed out on the ultimate archeology accoutrement, though, a '32 Chevy flatbed.

Had the loan approved, was on my way to see it...then...reference the above remark about archeologists being poor...

Oh, well. Maybe by the time I'm seventy I can afford it!

I had it all planned out to make it into a truck like this USGS surveyor's truck, circa 1931.

Oh, the humanity!

 

[LizzieMaine]

So that started me thinking on small period containers to put things in, like cigar boxes, tea boxes, coffee cans, etc. Anybody know of some products today that come in good containers that might fit the bill, or other period type containers? I've already asked Nick Charles to see if he can hunt up a couple decent cigar boxes for pencils, erasers, etc, but a couple boxes or cans for these tags and other assorted small items would be nice.

One of the most common and convenient recycled containers for small objects was flat-fifty cigarette tins. These were cheap, durable, and small enough to be easily carried in a coat pocket or a briefcase -- but being metal, they were good protection for small doodads of various kinds.

Pipe tobacco tins, such as the one you'd better let Prince Albert out of, were another very common store-it container, and were just as convenient and durable.

You still find such containers everywhere -- I doubt there's a flea market in America that doesn't have at least a few Lucky Strike Flat Fifties on display, containing anything from sewing supplies to fishing tackle to postage stamps.

 

[Minerva]

So that started me thinking on small period containers to put things in, like cigar boxes, tea boxes, coffee cans, etc. Anybody know of some products today that come in good containers that might fit the bill, or other period type containers? I've already asked Nick Charles to see if he can hunt up a couple decent cigar boxes for pencils, erasers, etc, but a couple boxes or cans for these tags and other assorted small items would be nice.

Cooky and sweet tins (you know, the ones people send at the holidays) are always good for bigger or bulk things. My father was always big on using those and cigar boxes. And coffee cans with metal lids -- do they still make those? Tea tins for the smaller items.

Typewriter ribbon tins also for small things, which I know they don't make anymore but you could probably find some at a flea market. Fish hook tins are/were about the same size.

Glass jars if you're transporting cleaning solutions or powders.

Old paint cans, once they're empty and cleaned out. The Container Store has some the right shape you could use if you antique them up a bit.

Let me think ... I don't know if it helps you any, but the nicer tools my father had that needed transporting, he made leather cases or pouches for.

 

[MPicciotto]

Altoids tins!! That is the ONLY modern one I could come up with. I store wire crimp connectors in one.

Matt

 

[dhermann1]

Sucrets

Sucrets were neatly wrapped cough drops. They came in a nice little hinged tin, sort of an ishy yellow color, with dark blue.
When I was a very little kid my mother's frend noticed that her bobby pins were all over the house. She suggested keeping them in a Sucrets tin. She had that Sucrets tin till the day she died, almost 50 years later.
http://www.chiptin.com/antiqibles/tins/throat_lozenge.htm

 

[Mojave Jack]

Altoids tins!! That is the ONLY modern one I could come up with. I store wire crimp connectors in one.

Matt

Matt, check these out! I wasn't looking for these in particular, but stumbled on them looking for other types of period container. And for a $1.25, I can't really go wrong.

Lizzie, I've got my eye out for cigarette containers, too. I saw a Camel can (round, like a small coffee can), go on eBay for about $4 but I missed it. That's just the sort of thing I'd like.

I saw a history of Sucrets tins, too, and apparently they were introduced just about 1932, so they would be perfect, too. The Altoids tins above are pretty close, though, and the price is right.
I also found a pretty nice period pocket notebook.

It might be a little late, but I don't think things like this changed very rapidly. Bill Campbell had served in the Army before he and Elizabeth homesteaded in the desert, and he often wore his old uniforms for the fieldwork they were doing. I suppose he might have carried an old pocket notebook like this one that he picked up in the Army, too.

Thanks for the suggestions, folks! It's all coming together!

 

[Jedburgh OSS]

Here's a vintage clipboard

With and without the flash; I found this one for 50 cents and cleaned it up with sandpaper and fine steel wool then rubbed Scott's Liquid Gold into it (the wood was very dry.) Clipboards of that era were strips of wood glued together like a cutting board you can buy today. I considered adding a clip to a cutting board, but they are too thick and would need run through a planer.