Volunteer Maine Militia Box Plate

This damaged Volunteer Maine Militia box plate was calling my name every time I viewed it on Plez Bagby's Virginia Relics web site. As you can see, it had been folded in half which resulted in a complete split. It may have been done by a soldier, perhaps a confederate making use of the solder fill to make field-molded bullets or perhaps this plate simply took a direct center hit from disc or plow.

I know that some purists would say leave it untouched as a two-piece. My approach or stance falls somewhere in-between purist and revisionist. For this relic I felt that a re-connect was appropriate, to have the relic displayed more complete, along with before-repair pictures.



The repair and matching required several sessions at the workbench and perhaps a total of 6hrs involving spot layering of differing dust hues after the initial edge angle matching and rejoin. I could have quickly re-patinized (painted) the entire face and re-filled the back with a solder mix, totally compromising originality but that approach, while actually minimizing the time it takes to do the restoration, usually results in a very different relic than the one dug. While I've done that kind of work, I do not get nearly the same amount of satisfaction from it. I think it looks good now but I may choose to expose more base metal and verdigris. I often set relic work aside and revisit a project with "new" eyes usually seeing something that requires tweaking. Note how robust the iron loops are and larger than what you find installed on the US box plates. I've done little to them aside from rust removal. They are heavy gauge and sturdy. You have to love these Maine plates!

Probing for the Deep Relics

After probing out some large rocks at depth I'm encouraging my sister on her second dig with me to continue carefully in case she comes across a bottle.  At this point she has recovered a .58 minie, some buck balls and random pieces of glass.  

My turn in the hole and I've uncovered a circular iron object that has us guessing. 

 It is so rusted that it cannot be removed intact and it doesn't register as metal on the pinpointer.  It appears to be a rusted out bucket as further work reveals sides going down another 10" or so.

Directly underneath the object was this little gem.  Protected from the many rocks for 150 years.  Held here by my sister Debbie.

12-sided ink cleaned.  The cloudy white occlusions are actually glass imperfections from the blowing process.

Pontil mark 

Half Dime recovered a week before a few feet away from this excavation.  The third 1861 found in the small search area.  Possibly a coin spill.  Hope there's more to come.

State of New York Waist Belt Plate Restoration

State of New York waist belt plate

Solder fill simulated as heavily oxidized

Reconstructed & Restored

VMM Restoration

Volunteer Maine Militia waist belt plate

Arrow hook and hook from US belt plate with solder and simulated
solder fill added.  These plates typically had minimal solder fill and
 only enoughto hold the attachments in place.

Lockplate

Before

After

Drummer Buckle

Before

After

SNY Buckle

Before

 

After

Button Repair

Successful back and shank fabrication and installation