Ratios

[Resurgam]

                                    Presently stuck in the house and unable to feed my metal detecting addiction. Whilst sitting here watching the traffic roll bye, I got to thinking about some of my finds over the last year or two.

                                    It has surprised me how many pieces of cutlery I have found; both on the beach and on my permissions. I haven't been counting the items of cutlery but just ensured that I wasn't chucking silver in my scrap bucket. I would say that the highest number of items have been forks, followed by spoons, and the lesser numbers were knives. I suppose that there must be an explanation for the cutlery ratios that I find; or perhaps other people find different numbers of cutlery items?

                                    Is this what happens when we detectorists go "cold turkey"?  

[Val Beechey]

Don't know about that Chris but I do know I'll never look at a field the same way again.

I find more spoons 

Val

[Chef Geoff]

If your sad like me Chris then this is an interesting thread with some interesting possible reasons for why we find cutlery .
Spoons are always going to be the oldest items of cutlery we find simply because the are the oldest purpose made item forks are a relatively new invention with most people not owning or using them until late into the 19th century, knives were more utilitarian with none being solely for eating again until quite recently.
Diet also has a big effect on the utensils that were used with pottage of some type making up the bulk of the average diet again into the 19th century which meant spoons were the order of the day.
The reason for loss of so many could be my favourite subject ie "night soil".....no I don't mean they ate them but as a chef and hotel manager for 20 odd years one of the greatest recurring costs still is "spoons" as they end up being scraped in to the bin when clearing plates, this is such a universal problem that bins can now be fitted with a strong magnetic trap to stop the cutlery disapearing

So if you have a farm that gives up a ridiculous amount of cutlery then you've probably got yourself an ex pig farm as up until 2001 kitchen waste "swill" was sold to pig farms and any cutlery along with it

[Resurgam]

                              Thanks Geoff; some interesting points there. I'm not finding tons of cutlery but none the less was a little puzzled by my finds. Initially, I was thinking that farm workers were suffering losses whilst having lunch in the fields. My last two items were two stainless-steel forks that looked very modern and had a rampant stag and the initials th stamped on the handles. The oldest fork was Georgian with long tines.

                              Night soil! Hmm! 

[Chef Geoff]

Well if you think that rubbish collection is a relatively new thing and all waste including sewage was used on arable fields a good way to get rid of your slops, broken pottery and anything else was to toss it into your night soil bucket ie the toilet.

[Rob Two Spades]

I've also found loads of cutlery, especially on lawns near promenades and beaches. My theory was picnic losses.

[Chef Geoff]

  You could be on to something there Rob

[dingdong]

Yep,I am still pickin up wooden ice cream spoons circa 1950s,and also chip forks which i find round the bins when I go out for a meal!!!YUM! YUM!!😷

[Resurgam]

So things aint changed much over the years? Where there was once night soil; we now have green waste!

[IFINDNOTHING]

Geoff, great explanation Night waste explains buttons for me mostly, but maybe more than we would like to think has been dropped down the loo, horrendous thought in a way what were all digging up.
When thinking of a username, it was going to be Mr Spoon for me  .

[Chef Geoff]

I agree if you study some of the excavation reports from areas below garderobes where the night soil was removed regularly a number of hammered coins and rings have been found (the number found in Roman sewage systems is huge) now given that as I say it was taken away regularly and the relatively low number of people who used them then we can see that it wasn't that unusual, OK possibly the peasants in the village weren't sitting on the loo counting their fortunes in the same way but it could well account for a great number of coins especially in the Georgian period when pockets start appearing

[IFINDNOTHING]

Mobile phone insurer Budget Mobile Cover says accidental damage makes up 55 per cent of their claims. Water damage makes up a quarter of these accidental damage claims. "Around half of our water damage claims are from people admitting to dropping their phone down the toilet,"

And that's an iPhone, so small change and should not be a problem.

[Chef Geoff]

  I've done it....lesson learned don't put the phone in your breast pocket

[IFINDNOTHING]

10/10 for that, phone removed

[Resurgam]

                      Hmmm, many years ago ( when I was a young man ) I came across a man and his wife looking under a large drain cover outside their house. Upon enquiring what they were looking for, I was informed that the guy had lost his false teeth down the loo whilst being sick and they were hoping to recover them. 

                      Recently, whilst reading up on beach detecting, it was said that areas were old storm drain outlets were located was good area to find objects that had gone down the drains.