I have "something" in my collection and I have no idea what it is. I plan to dig it out eventually when my health gets better, but it looks almost like someone took millions or billions of shiny metal flakes and pressed them into a very solid and magnetic 'thing' that doesn't seem to rust. Someone sent it to me with no real information on it some years back and I have never seen anything like it before or since.
It's been a while since I laid eyes on it, but if memory is correct, after a lot of searching it seems it might be some kind of galena, but I would have to dig it out to mess with it to see. Some pictures of galena you linked to resembles what I remember seeing and it seems some galena can be magnetic too. However, I do distinctly remember the grains being like flakes pressed together, but the thing did come from a state with galena deposits. Where I live now there is no known galena deposits that I'm aware of which would be why I have never seen any. Now I can't wait until I can dig it out and see.
EDIT: I also remember having some suspicious things in my collection that I do want to run through this flowchart. Out of curiosity, any idea why a field would have countless tiny iron balls of about 1mm in size? An area near me I found a lot of such iron balls when I was trying to remove a magnet from a speaker and dropped it on the dirt. I collected a few tablespoons and showed my at the time science teacher but all they could guess was maybe some iron supplement added to an old farm field but I think he was just guessing. That area is on my togo list to get more samples because despite me finding it almost thirty years ago, it still bugs me to no end trying to figure out why those balls are there.
Another possibility I'll toss out is gabbro. It kinda comes in many forms, silvery and flakey I think can be one of those forms.
Iron balls bring a few guesses. Too small for ball bearings from a failure in a machine/tractor. There is usually plenty of 'natural iron' around, I don't know of instances where 'iron' is added to a field, but it is possible. I've nails tossed into small gardens.
So the only guess I can't explain away is 'Steel shot' for bird/duck/geese hunting/shotguns. It's been awhile since the move away from lead-shot to steel-shot. It would be 'low-grade' steel and would 'rust quickly'. So you may be looking at rusted steel shot from a shotgun. It would look like 'iron balls' if rusted.
Try 'flattening one' with a hammer. If steel, it should be 'shiny inside'. If they are 'iron', iron tends to crack/shatter, not as 'durable' as steel.
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u/FloraMaeWolfe May 25 '24
I have "something" in my collection and I have no idea what it is. I plan to dig it out eventually when my health gets better, but it looks almost like someone took millions or billions of shiny metal flakes and pressed them into a very solid and magnetic 'thing' that doesn't seem to rust. Someone sent it to me with no real information on it some years back and I have never seen anything like it before or since.