Cleaning Old Bottles and Jars
Recent Bottle Dump Finds
I have not been doing any metal detecting for a few days, as I have had the bottle dump fever! I have been out bush looking for old bottles and jars, and I have found some beautiful bottles and jars to add to my growing collection.
I have not found anything too valuable in recent days, a few milk bottles worth $70 – $100 each would be the most valuable I have found in the last couple of days. My favourite bottles to find are old beer bottles which are embossed, such as Pickaxe, Perth Glass Works, Swan Brewery, B.E.CO LTD, Fremantle Bottle Exchange, and much more.
I have a really nice collection of beer bottles, and I am always on the hunt to buy bottles that tickle my fancy, so if you have any beer bottles, crown seals, and even soft drink bottles, please send me an email with photos of what you want to sell.
I have over a thousand bottles and jars in my collection, I don’t have anything too valuable in my collection, maybe the most valuable one is only worth a couple hundred dollars, but its not about value, its about what they look like, with the beautiful embossings, the air bubbles, and the way they were made.
I found out a great tip today browsing a bottle collectors website, and that is when searching bottle dumps, use a bottle probe.
See how to use and make a Bottle Probe
So I will be going back to the local old rubbish dump in the next few days to do some probing … it sure beats digging holes and hoping for the best!
Anyhow over the last two days I have been pre cleaning my bottles and jars, using bottle brushes to clean out all the dirt from the inside of them bottles and jars.
I am not even a quarter of the way through cleaning them, so it is going to be a very long process. But it is a nice relaxing way to spend a couple of days in the sunny warm weather.
My Bottles and Jars awaiting a cleanIt is a very time consuming process cleaning bottles, I even bought myself a Bottle Tumbler from Jar Doctor in the USA, and if you live in Australia and want one of his excellent machines, be prepared to pay quite a bit of money, it is worth it…. but unfortunately it costs a fortune just to get the machine into Australia via customs. You have to pay customs fees, custom brokers, shipping fees and other fees.
Just to buy the bottle cleaning machine cost me $2800 USD, and then another $1500 AUD for all the fees for customs, shipping ect.
But while the Australian Dollar is strong against the US Currency, get one now!
The bottle tumbler is a great machine, but I have found that it really boosts the electricity bill, because just to clean one bottle on average, will need to be tumbled continuously for 3 days. And when you have one thousand bottles to clean, well thats a few years of cleaning bottles!
But I only clean the bottles which I want to put on display.
Jar Doctor Bottle Cleaning Machine (Jar Doctor "Wayne" Pictured)
A good tip to make a old bottle look in Mint Condition is to get some baby oil, put a tea spoon or so in the bottle, and rotate the bottle in a horizontal motion, and that will bring the bottle up like brand new… but it is a temporary thing. But will make your bottle look brand new.
Attention Australian Bottle Hunters and Coin Shooters!
If you are an avid Australian Bottle Hunter and Coin Shooter like I am, I would like to recommend a couple of great websites that may be of use to you as they are for me.
Bottle Guide Australia
This is a brilliant website for collectors and searchers of Old Bottles, there is nothing better than coming home from a Bottle Hunt and then to bring your old bottles inside, put them on the floor next to your computer and then to do some research on the bottles you have found.
You do a keyword search of the bottle you have found e.g. “Fremantle” and Bottle Guide will present you with a list of all bottles which have Fremantle stamped on them, then you can browse through the photos of bottles listed and find the bottle you have found on the day, if it is on their database, the database will give you information on how much the bottle is worth, the rarity of the bottle, past auction results and prices paid for that bottle. And so much more.
See attached image for an example.
Bottle Information Page on BottleGuide.com.au
BottleGuide.com.au is not free though to search for bottle prices and bottles on their database, it costs $33 AUD for a one year membership, but it is well worth paying that outlay, you can pay via paypal, cheque, credit card or postal order.
I like to also use bottle guide when looking at bottles for sale on Ebay, you can get some great bargains from sellers or are unaware of the bottles value that they are selling.
They currently have over 10,000 bottles on their database.
So if you love bottle hunting, make sure you join bottle guide!
BlueSheet.com.au
The same goes with what I said about Bottle Hunting, I also love coming home with the old coins I have found to see if they have some value to them. So once I sort them, then I go to BlueSheet.com.au and browse through that dates I have found.
This site is great also, before I found BlueSheet.com.au I used to go to a couple of websites which did show current valuations, but their information was out of date, and BlueSheet.com.au coin values are always up to date and accurate.
Highly recommended for coin collectors, coin hunters, or people with a big jar of old Australian Coins laying under their bed!
BlueSheet.com.au cost me $26.95 AUD for a 12 Month Subscription, but they have many more membership options.
BlueSheet.com.au Half-Penny Prices
BlueSheet.com.au specialises in the following Australian Coin Valuations
EARLY AUSTRALIAN COINAGE
NEW SOUTH WALES (1813)
HOLEY DOLLAR (1813)
DUMP (1813)
AUSTRALIAN GOLDADELAIDE ASSAY OFFICE (1852)
ONE POUND (1852)
FIVE POUND (1852)
HALF SOVEREIGN (1853 – 1920)
SYDNEY MINT (1853 – 1869)
YOUNG HEAD (1871 – 1887)
JUBILEE HEAD (1887 – 1893)
OLD HEAD (1893 – 1901)
EDWARD VII (1902 – 1910)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1920)FULL SOVEREIGN (1853 – 1931)
SYDNEY MINT (1853 – 1870)
YOUNG HEAD (1871 – 1887)
JUBILEE HEAD (1887 – 1893)
OLD HEAD (1893 – 1901)
EDWARD VII (1902 – 1910)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1931)TWO POUNDS (1887 – 1902)
JUBILEE HEAD (1887)
EDWARD VII (1902)FIVE POUNDS (1887 – 1902)
JUBILEE HEAD (1887)
EDWARD VII (1902)
AUSTRALIAN COMMONWEALTH COINAGE
HALF PENNY (1911 – 1964)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1936)
GEORGE VI (1937 – 1952)
ELIZABETH II (1953 – 1964)
PENNY (1911 – 1964)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1936)
GEORGE VI (1937 – 1952)
ELIZABETH II (1953 – 1964)THREEPENCE (1910 – 1964)
EDWARD VII (1910)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1936)
GEORGE VI (1937 – 1952)
ELIZABETH II (1953 – 1964)
SIXPENCE (1910 – 1963)
EDWARD VII (1910)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1936)
GEORGE VI (1937 – 1952)
ELIZABETH II (1953 – 1963)
SHILLING (1910 – 1963)
EDWARD VII (1910)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1936)
GEORGE VI (1937 – 1952)
ELIZABETH II (1953 – 1963)
PATTERN (1927)FLORIN (1910 – 1963)
EDWARD VII (1910)
GEORGE V (1911 – 1936)
GEORGE VI (1937 – 1952)
ELIZABETH II (1953 – 1963)COMMEMORATIVES (1927 – 1954)
CROWN (1937 – 1938)
GEORGE VI (1937 – 1938)
KOOKABURRA PATTERNS (1919 – 1921)
HALF PENNY (1920 – 1921)
PENNY (1919 – 1921)
Hidden Treasures Under a House
Under House Metal Detecting Finds
Well not exactly hidden treasure, but I found some nice stuff yesterday at an old house which has no floorboards (eaten away by termites)
I spent around 6 hours detecting yesterday, I went for a long drive as I usually do and love to do, looking for places to go metal detecting and I went to a few old homesteads around the district.
The first one I went to was just basically a very old iron shack, I had no luck there, and did not hang around for long, because the ground was like concrete and impossible to get the shovel in, usually I carry a geologist pick ax, but I keep on forgetting to take with me, as I do with my metal detecting pouch, so at the end of the day my pockets are full of sand.
The Australian Iron Shack
After leaving the old iron shack, I headed East of town to a place where I have been previously hunting for old Australian bottles, feeling alot more confident and excited.
This old place had two old abandoned houses, the first place was very old for Australian standards, probably late 19th Century, it is a mud brick home, very weathered and very damaged by termites and the elements of weather.
The Australian Mud Brick House
Once again that old place had ground like concrete, so I did not really try much detecting, but around 200 metres away was the next old house…. this is the house which gave up some of its hidden treasures.
The house looked pretty good on the outside, but on the inside it was just ball walls, no floorboards due to termites, and as soon as I noticed it had no floorboards, thats when I started feeling a little excited, knowing that there was a good chance to find things that had either been buried under the floorboards, or to find things that may have fallen between the floorboards.
No Floorboards - Treasure Hunters Dream
Mystery Coin in the Sift
So I started detecting and it did not take long to get a strong signal, the soil was beautiful and soft so I had no trouble digging soil into my sift. What I found was a coin of some type which I had never found before, because it was bigger than all the previous Australian Pre-Decimal Coins I had found before, but there was no way I could identify it because it had a big shell of corrosion surrounding it.
I thought the coin would be well and truly damaged from the corrosion, that is only if it was a copper coin, but was it copper?
I leave that surprise to a post tomorrow, because I am still impatiently cleaning this unknown find… so please come back tomorrow and you’ll see my surprise find … (nothing special, but I have never seen one before)
The Mystery Coin Found Under Floorboards
The Mystery Coin above will be revealed on the site soon!
Anyhow, besides that item, this is what I found under the floorboards and around the house:
- 1912 Australian Half Penny
- 1922 Australian Half Penny
- 1925 Australian Half Penny
- 1939 Australian Six Pence
- 1942 Australian Three Pence
The Third House
I did find some other coins, six pence and three pence, but due to my carelessness, I had them in my top pocket and they must have fallen out when I was digging or bending over, but will find them on my return hopefully!
I found other stuff at the house as follows:
- Silver Tea Spoon
- 2 Silver Bangles / Bracelets
- Buttons
- Some Bottles and Jars
- Plenty of Junk!
Will be heading back to that place in the very near future!
Then finally on the way home, I past another old house, and thought, bugger it, I will test my luck there as well!
And I found some more coins.
- 1948 Australian Shilling
- 1950 Australian Shilling
- 1951 Australian Three Pence
- numerous 1 and 2 cent coins
The Last House for the Day!
Great Bottle Dump Found
Old Bottle Dump littered with thousands of old bottles
Two days ago I found this great bottle dump with thousands of bottles spread out over approximately a one acre area.
I was quite lucky to have found it, because I walked around 3 kilomtres from the road, and I was just about to turn back, when I spotted some rusty old drums a couple hundred metres away from where I was, so I walked a bit further and then all of a sudden I saw that beautiful sparkle of glass! Every bottle hunters dream, sparkling glass in the bush means old bottles!
When I saw how many I just did not know where to start. But got to the task of looking for bottles which I have not got in my collection so far, and also finding bottles which are worth a bit of money.
And I have around 100 or so bottles and jars which I do not have, so I was really happy about that.
When bottle hunting I usually only look for Bottles and Jars that have Logos or Words stamped onto the glass, some bottles and jars which don’t have any markings are not really worth collecting or investing in, unless of course they are very rare.
So over the last two days, I have made two exhausting trips back and forwards to this old bottle dump, when I say exhausting, it really is, because I put in the bottles in my old Navy canvas bag and put the bag over my shoulders and walk back to my car. As I said previously, the trip back to my car is around 3 kilometres and the bag would be full of bottles, and would weigh around 40 kilograms, so I it was great to get the weight off my shoulders on arrival.
So now I have got another 200 bottles that I need to photograph and categorise. I am getting a new little shed soon, built especially for my Old Bottle and Jar Collection and I am also getting a Bottle Tumbler from the Jar Doctor in the very near future, to clean all my bottles and jars, so they are like brand new again.
The bottles which I am particularly interested in are old beer bottles, softdrink and soda bottles, sauce bottles, wine bottles and poison bottles, but anything that catches my eye and something I don’t have will be added to my collection.
I am new to this bottle hunting experience, I don’t have nothing really old, probably the oldest would date back to 1890.
I am a member of Bottle Guide, and I really love coming home to check out the current values of the bottles I have just found, it’s always nice to find a bottle which is rare and worth money.
The Bottle Dump
Metal Detecting Withdrawal Symptoms Fixed! Silver Ring Found!
Rusty Ring? No - It is Silver and Silver does not Rust! Before after Photos Coming Soon!
Over the last week I have not had any time to go out Metal Detecting, due to the Easter Holidays and spending time with my family, so yesterday it was time for me to go out bush to go and find some stuff before I went crazy as I was seriously having withdrawal symptoms!
Winter is not too far away and the days are getting shorter, so I left around 4pm with a couple of hours to spare until darkness, I decided that I would go out to my towns local Lake, Lake Dumbleyung and to some hunting for possible lost rings!
Anyhow I arrived there, covered myself in some insect repellant, because the flies are really bad out there and off I went.
A friend of mine Tony from Sydney Metal Detector Services gave me a few metal detecting tips for when searching in salt water and very mineralized conditions. I have a Minelab Etrac Metal Detector and I set the detector into the settings he gave me and off I went.
The section of the Lake I went to is the old Water Ski Club, at the moment the Lake is near on dry, but very muddy around 50 metres from the shoreline. I just basically detected around the ski boat ramp area and where people would swim when the Lake is full of water. I found the usual lot of pull tabs, and then a old silver coin, I think it is an Australian Six Pence, so obviously that coin had been sitting in the water for over 40 years.
Then I got my self I nice tone, and dug around, the soil was like brick hard clay, and after around 10 minutes of digging around, I found myself a ring!
I have attached the photos of the Ring, I think it is a Silver Ring, as you can see, the ring is very tarnished, which is to be expected with a Silver Ring laying in Salty conditions for a long period of time. And the same goes with the Silver Six Pence I found.
I also went for a bit of a walk on the salty flats, I was amazed to find a beautiful old glass coca cola bottle just laying half buried on the Lake, so I presume that bottle had been there for at least 25 to 30 years or more, it is obviously a bit weather worn, but other wise in excellent condition, no cracks no chips.
I love finding Old Bottles, that is another hobbie of mine. See my Old Bottle Collection
The Old Australian Glass Coca Cola Bottle I found on the Lake bed
As I mentioned above and you can see in the photos I have attached, both the Silver Ring and the Silver Six Pence are very tarnished, so much so, that you would not know they are silver.
So I have decided to do another Coin Cleaning and Silver Ring Cleaning experiment.
Currently I have both the coin and the ring, soaking in an ice cream container, which I covered the bottom with some foil, placed the ring and the coin on top of the foil, then put around 4 big table spoons of Bicarbonate Soda on top of the ring and the coin. Then I covered the ring and the coin in about 2 litres of boiling hot water.
I will let that soak for 24 hours, then I am going to clean them up in my Lortone Tumbler using some very fine tumbling grit and watch the tumbling very closely so I do not do any damage to the ring and especially the coin, which could be of value.
My Lortone Coin - Rock and Jewellery Tumblers
So I will keep you up to date and post some before and after cleaning photos of the Silver Coin and Silver Ring.
Anyhow, It was great to get out for a couple of hours yesterday, there is nothing better that going metal detecting, it always clears the mind and makes you feel great.
Tarnished Silver Sixpence - You can just see King Edward VII's head! Before - After Cleaning Pics coming soon!
My Old Bottle and Jar Collection
Old Beer Bottles
Besides Metal Detecting I am also a avid collector of Old Bottles and Jars, I do not have a huge collection. Currently I have around 500 Bottles and Jars. I have only been collecting these for the past year and it is like an addiction already.
I just wish I could afford a Bottle Tumbler but at the moment the price of around $2000 is out of my reach, however when I do get the moment I am definitely going to get one, so that I can clean up my bottles and jars so they look new again.
My favourite bottles to find are old beer bottles and old softdrink bottles.
Some of my Bottle and Jar Collection
When I find the time I photograph each bottle and put them on my Bottle Gallery
I was talking to an old friend yesterday, he is a farmer and said that he has alot of old bottle dumps on his farm, and said I am more than welcome to go out to his property to rummage amongst the old bottle dumbs … so I am pretty happy about that.
Old Soda Bottles
Is this a Beer Bottle?
Is this a Beer Bottle?
Well after finding the Wedding Ring yesterday with my Metal Detector yesterday I decided to do a quick bottle dump search in an area where I had previously found some old Australian bottles
In Australia, just like anywhere else in the world, farmers, settlers, roadside workers would likely take all of their rubbish to an isolated area and either bury it or in most cases burn it if the weather permitted.
When I am driving on isolated roads and even on country and rural highways, I always keep my eyes peeled for potential farm dumping grounds. These are very easy to see if you know what you are looking for. I know of quite a few areas where there are bottles, but just need the time and permission to do a search.
When looking for bottles either driving on the road or walking through the bush, these are the things I look for as follows:
- Old Car Wrecks
- Old rusted cans laying around
- Unusual clumps of grass
- Unusual mounds of soil
- Charcoal pieces on soil
- Glass sparkling in the distance or in front of you
- Old unused gravel roads or tracks
And thats just an example, basically it is just common sense, but a good Bottle Hunting tip which I always remember is “Don’t look at the bush, look through the bush”
That saying is something I was once told when I was a Soldier in the Australian Army, not to do with bottle hunting, but to do with hunting the enemy, you need to look through the bush to find the enemy.
It is amazing how true this saying is, when you train your eye, you will be amazed what you may see laying under a bush, an old bottle could have been laying there for a hundred years or more.
The photo above is of a tiny “Beer Bottle” I am not really sure if it is a beer bottle or a spirits bottle… if someone visiting this blog can help identify what the bottle was used for it would be greatly appreciated! It is around 17cm high as you can see by the ruler next to the bottle.
I have never seen such a bottle like this one before … I actually found around 10 of them by the side of a gravel road… hoping someone can help me identify what the contents of the bottle may have been.
Anyhow here are a few of some of my favourite old bottles which I found yesterday.
Champions Vinegar Bottle - Era - 1890's
Retro Pepsi Bottle
Beautiful Beach Glass
Well, over the last week I have been busy tumbling glass with my Lortone Tumbler which I use to clean coins, jewellery, gold and silver rings.
I am really impressed with the “Beach Sea Glass Effect” which the continuous tumbling has resulted in.
I have two tumblers, both Lortone, one is a Single Barrel Tumbler and the other is a Twin Barrel tumbler, I bought the single one off ebay and the double barrel from Aussie Sapphires and the Grit I am using for the beach glass effect is Silicone Carbide Course Grind
Here is the results from a weeks continuous tumbling.
Tumbled Glass - Beach Effect
Bottle Dump Reveals Treasures!
Click on the image to see what they are!
Well not exactly Treasure, but the other day I found this old bottle dump and I decided to dig around with my shovel to find some old bottles.
Much to my delight the first shovel load of soil revealed a nice Australian Penny, then a few more shovel loads later, another Penny as well as a few old bottles.
It was getting late in the day, around 6pm, but luckily it is daylight saving here, and still had another couple hours of daylight left, so I decided to go back home around 10kms away to get my Shermator Sifter
Anyhow, I came back excited, hoping to find more and I did find more, quite a bit of stuff actually, not just coins, but a nice toy horse, a Australian CWA Badge ( Country Womens Association ), some old roofing nails, an old aluminum clothes peg, 27 old australian coins, pennys, a shilling, two three pence coins, a six pence coin, as well as some 1 and 2 cent coins, a couple sets of earrings, some old marbles, three necklace charms, an old fish fork and some nice old belt buckles.
It took me around 6 hours over two days to get this little haul, not really worth much in value, but just the fact of finding the stuff without using my metal detector is great fun and every few shovel loads always revealed a nice little surprise.
My favourite would be the toy horse.
Anyhow, finding all this stuff in one little dump gives me some encouragement to use the Shermantor more when come across old bottle dumps!
You can see all my Metal Detecting Finds Photos or see each individual photo of exactly what I found at the Old Bottle Dump
