Beap52 1,041 #1 Posted Tuesday at 12:03 AM I don't think anyone that I've showed this object to had an idea of what it is called nor what it is the product of. I found it while mushroom hunting last spring along a rails to trails path. The nail is one I've had for probably 40 years and removed it from a rail road tie. I figure several fellow here will know what (I think) it is. 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ebinmaine 69,746 #2 Posted Tuesday at 12:06 AM Is it metal? Welding slag Meteorite Hunk of stuff? 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Pullstart 63,579 #3 Posted Tuesday at 12:11 AM Iron ore? 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
953 nut 56,785 #4 Posted Tuesday at 12:12 AM 5 minutes ago, Beap52 said: rails to trails path. Probably the molten remains of a poorly maintained rail road car wheel. Or a petrified piece of bear scatt. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SylvanLakeWH 26,599 #5 Posted Tuesday at 12:38 AM Looks like copper I've seen in Michigan's Upper Peninsula... 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lynnmor 7,487 #6 Posted Tuesday at 01:05 AM The nail is a date code. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JimSraj 472 #7 Posted Tuesday at 01:22 AM Looks like a big chunk of clinker from burning coal. 3 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beap52 1,041 #8 Posted Tuesday at 01:33 AM I'm pretty sure it's clinker. JimSraj just now answered it. When coal was burned, the impurities melted together and became a nuisance in the firebox so the fireman had to remove them. Apparently, some fireman or stoker as they were sometimes called, chucked this one out in the middle of nowhere and I found it along with a small mess of morels. Years ago nails, with numbers indicating the year of being put into service, were driven into the end of rail road ties. I pulled this one out while doing a job for a customer. It may be copper. I'm too lazy to run down to the train room to check. Weather man says we getting up to 16" of snow in our area. Whereas I don't have a blade or snow blower, I've invested in a big bottle of Aleve to help Pam's muscles that are bound to be sore time she gets the driveway cleaned with a shovel! 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
oliver2-44 10,091 #9 Posted Tuesday at 01:49 AM Yep looks like the bottom ash clinkers from the coal power plant I started at. 2 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
squonk 41,942 #10 Posted Tuesday at 11:55 AM Looks like what @Pullstart will find in his homemade waste oil burner! 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Blasterdad 2,799 #11 Posted Tuesday at 01:13 PM Also known as "cinders". They used to crush them & cover the roads & make trails with them. I grew up with three paper mills within five miles of me, one directly across the street. They're also extremely sharp, I still have some imbedded in my ring finger from wiping out on my dirt bike when I was a teenager, (black scar). My grandmother had them in her knees from when she was a little girl. They still pop up in my yard from time to time... 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wayne0 717 #12 Posted Tuesday at 01:34 PM 13 hours ago, Beap52 said: I don't think anyone that I've showed this object to had an idea of what it is called nor what it is the product of. I found it while mushroom hunting last spring along a rails to trails path. The nail is one I've had for probably 40 years and removed it from a rail road tie. I figure several fellow here will know what (I think) it is. Coke-Coal clinker Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wh500special 2,247 #13 Posted Wednesday at 05:13 PM Slag/clinker. Could be from a locomotive burning coal, but might have been deliberately dumped as part of the rail bed gravel. The steel and coke plants in my hometown generated lots of slag from their processes and it was used in every kind of fill imaginable around there. Steve 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
