S8 E11 - Relic Restoration with JP Hunts Live in the Studio - Relics Radio show

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, March fifth, Wednesday, Here twenty twenty five on Relicts Radio.
I'm DK from Adventures in Dirt bringing you another Relics
Radio with my buddy. Let's bring him in here. You
know them as they're fifty to eighty adventures. Tonya, senor,

(00:22):
how are you? Oh? My good sounds good man. I'm
hungry tonight.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
It's gonna be a while to you get to eat.
We had a good guest tonight.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
That's right. Yeah, I'm doing well man. How are you done?
All right? Head above water? Yeah, it's been busy we
talked about in last show, and yeah it's a little smoother.
I got one job out of state that started up,
so kind of smooth on that one of a bet,
but oh the one's cranking also so but it's better

(00:52):
than being bored, right, how can.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
You be bored?

Speaker 1 (00:56):
I know you're not bored. I'm not bored, but would
be great. Ooh, I agree.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
I think this working thing is cutting into my metal
attecting time. So we got to figure out a way
to get retirement.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
You know what's terrible is this last weekend. Yeah, had
an incredible well, my gosh.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
It was probably as agree and I don't know how
many months.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yeah, and people are gonna be saying, now, why didn't
you go out? Ken? And it's Tony and I was like,
I actually charged everything up, I was actually gonna go out.
Oh I was going to go out. And then you
know what happened. She listening. I don't know if my
wife's now show, sorry, honey, but she says, hey, oh god,

(01:39):
I want to do this. I want to go to
this place and do some things. And she never ever
really asked me to do anything. And she knew I
was charging my equipment and I was going to go
out Sunday, And I thought, you know what, man, she
never ever kind of holds that on me. She never
does ever. I want to go deck detecting. She supports
a one hundred percent. She was gosh, really hoping we

(02:00):
could go to this place, and yeah, I thought, you
know what, she had never asked man. I told her,
all right, great, yeah we'll do that, honey, no problem.
Got up next morning, started doing some things. I'm like, hey,
where are we gonna when are we going to go
to that place? Yeah? Uh yeah, I don't think I
want to go. And by that time it was too

(02:21):
late for me to kind of gather my stuff up.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
What did you What did you have all charged up
ready to go?

Speaker 1 (02:26):
I had my coil from my Dais too. I had
my headset Dais two, headset, my remote, I had my
recording microphones. I had my recording cell phone. I had
my go pros.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
This is only an hour and a half show, Hold on.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
Hold on? I had uh yeah, I had my belt
a YouTuber huh yeah, yeah, I had closer than I was. Yeah,
what'd you do? I?

Speaker 3 (02:55):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (02:56):
I set up the plumbing and the drain to the vanit.
I finished up the calking in the shower and the baseboards.

Speaker 1 (03:05):
You are doing a remodel, you're doing a renovation project
that you're yeah, it's the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
So one more bathroom to go, and then we're, uh,
we're gonna be putting it up for sale and.

Speaker 1 (03:16):
Seeing what we can do. Yeah. Yeah, we'll see.

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Lots and lots of work. But I got to get
it done because we need to sell the house. We
need to buy a new house, and I need to
get metal tech team because I'm tired of staying cooped
up in this uh this house on the weekends.

Speaker 1 (03:30):
So yeah, you got to get that done. Already. Come on, man,
I know it's ridiculous. We got a few more weeks
until spring springs. That's right, that's right. Where are we
going this year? Where are we going to hit? We've
got a few options, like what do you think we'll
be digging? Besides well, every other state that we've got friends.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
At the week, I know one place we're gonna be
at Rush to the Rockies.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
That is what is Rush of the Rockies to that TWI.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
It's our national medal attacking event that we put on
every single year with Eureka Treasure Hunters Club. This year
May thirtieth through June first, we're gonna be out in beautiful,
gorgeous Kiowa, Colorado. Yeah, five different events, all seated. It's
a seated hunt and people from all over the United
States come. I mean I remember I think of off

(04:22):
top of I had Florida, Texas, Colorado, and Kansas.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
We got some people from Ohio coming in this year.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
I've got confirmations from so Nebraska.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
A Virginia, maybe New York, Hue.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
So if you guys don't follow us on social media,
get over to either RELICX Radio fifty two eighty Adventures
Adventures in dirt. We're posting all kinds of relics Radio,
I'm sorry, rest of the rocky stuff over on Facebook
and our social media, so you guys can get over there,
find the registration packet and get signed up, come visit
with us. We're gonna Relax Radio is gonna be there.

(05:01):
You and I technically don't have any responsibilities. See how
we worked that out three days. We've got responsibilities leading
up to it, but not those three days. So we're
gonna be live all weekend. Even thinking about doing maybe
are you smarter than a Rella Hunter live from Relax
Radio attendees, that'd be great, Yeah, with some people at

(05:21):
the event.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
So it's gonna be a fun time. It's gonna be
a great weekend.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Camp out in my trailer the whole weekend and just
metal tech, meet people and just have a good time.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah. Our club has been around since nineteen seventy three.
It's one of the longest running, most well organized rand
clubs out there, the Eureka Treasure Hunters Club, and I
think this is their twenty fifth Rush to the Rockies
that they've put on over the years, and we've taken
some years off here and there, but Yeah, boy, we
got a whole committee that puts the thing together. It's

(05:52):
gonna be a really fun, well organized hunt with a
lot of good things happening. But yeah, check it out.
Be a good time, good time for sure.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Let's jump on the chat real before we do that
our guest tonight. I just want to tell everybody that's
here early. We'll mention it later on here as well.
Our guest sprung on us that we're gonna do in
any giveaway tonight. So sometime during the podcast, you guys
got to be live here, so get in get over
on the live chat, chime in whether it's over on
Adventures Endured or fifty two eighty on YouTube, get in there,

(06:23):
throw some you know, have some fun in the chat,
and you guys have to be present with us to
win a little gift from our guest tonight. So just
want to throw that out there real quick. But mister
Bill Hayes in the show early, of course he is
Mandy's candy.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
She want to give away. She did she has another
chance to, didn't she win a medal? Tech? So yeah,
it's awesome. Yeah, the tech deesd welcome in. Hi. Hi, Hey,
how about Copper Joe, Hello, Copper, Joey. I haven't seen
Joe a little bit coming out, coming out to see us.
See Copper.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Yeah, he was here twenty twenty three for Rush to
the Rockies. Sure was a good nice mister Ill Digger Yep,
dirty money levers. That's all right, Robert Thompson. Thompson, he's
from Nebraska.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Right, yep, good to see Robert.

Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, David, Full Metal Digger, how you doing?

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Hey? Real quick?

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Kind of off topic. I know we need to get
to our guest. I don't want to keep him waiting,
but man, David put out a video on his channel
and I posted, I spammed it everywhere. You guys got
to go check out Full Metal Digger on YouTube. This
this restoration on a shaving knife, a shaving blade was insane.
You guys have to go watch that. Seriously, it was amazing.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
I want to definitely hook these two up our guest
tonight and day for sure. Yes, David was finding some
amazing medieval relics and stuff from Germany and England and.

Speaker 2 (07:54):
Definitely just throw some medieval at our guests tonight. You
know what, Well, he's coming down his face working on
that five miles Hey, how about Lex Blazing Television. Yeah,
Lex is down in the Springs. Actually, yeah, what's up man? Yeah, Lex,
Dirty South thirty sounds.

Speaker 1 (08:16):
See you welcome everyone, good to see rolling in here.
People in the chat, Neil, good to see you man.

Speaker 2 (08:24):
Speaking of the chat, Rodriguez, all right, wait, speaking of
springs is what I.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
Meant to say. Flash in your pan ed Hey, Ed, Yeah, excellent, man,
welcome a lot of people rolling in. I see you
rolling in there. Yeah, let's get to our guests. Man,
I've been really itching to talk to JP.

Speaker 2 (08:44):
This is a long time coming. Then all right, let's
get him on RELICS Radio Proud to present Relicx Radio. Hey, buddy,
how's it going?

Speaker 3 (08:57):
What that's up? Guys? What's going on? I know it's
been a while, and I know you've been wanting to
get me on the show a good minute.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
So, uh you didn't want to sound desperate or anything
like that. We were desperate to talk to you.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
Yeah, we have we have a list. If we have
a list of people we want to get on the show,
you know, we keep it Google sheet at the top. Yeah. Yeah,
and we're like, let's get him, let's get him. Oh,
he's busy. This you know.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
I think we should start to show out this way, Tony,
if you don't mind, you know, just a toast, I
mean to the with the two bourbons there, you got
a toast to your.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Brother and then uh chairs, I got a duck.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
He's got a duck.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
Sorry, sorry about that.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
To put you on the spot, Tony, but I figured, uh,
you know.

Speaker 1 (09:41):
I can only right, Yeah, I look behind you there,
JP you got Yeah, why did we not meet at
your house to do the show?

Speaker 2 (09:51):
Here?

Speaker 3 (09:53):
I get it.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
Get we got to talk to our production assistant here
and get this set up because this was just poorly decided.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Yeah. So you know, I don't want anybody to think
I'm an alcoholic by any means, but I'm you know,
I I I actually enjoy bourbon. I just the different
flavors and and you know, just different types of bourbons
and you know, there's no bourbon that's the same, and
they're all different, and you know, I enjoy it. So
it's gotten to the points where, you know, I collect
the bourbon to you know, just to enjoy it. And

(10:23):
then if anybody comes over, it's always nice, you know,
to offer up a type of bourbon that they like.
But you know, it's also good for when you start
working on a really bad relic.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
We were talking about that before the start of the show,
like I would need it just to calm this down
from some of the some of the relations a little bit.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yeah, there's been some times that those relics that are
so bad, but they're also the super rare expensive ones
that you know, you just you you pray and hope
for a positive outcome and you just hope that you know,
God leads you in the right direction to use the
skill that He's given me and to be able to

(11:05):
restore these relics. So yeah, some of them are stressful.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Hey, before before we get started, tell us a little
bit about you. You know, where you're from, and you know,
just real quick about you know, kind of your history
and who you are.

Speaker 3 (11:19):
Yeah, so just just who I am. You know, I
grew up and born and raised in Maryland. But you know,
I currently live probably about forty five minutes from Gettysburg.
I'm actually centrally located in a really good location, so
I'm about forty five minutes from Gettysburg. I'm about forty

(11:39):
five minutes from Antietam. I'm about fifteen minutes from the
Battle of Monocacy. I'm about twenty minutes from the Battle
of Hagerstown or there was a you know, the one
in Hagarstown. So you know, I'm centrally located in a
lot of Civil War activity and movement or camps and

(12:02):
so you know, I'm blessed with that. And uh you know,
uh I got into rail counting and then slowly got
into finding all the Civil War relics, and that's it's
took off.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
They don't have a lot of history around it, is
what you're trying to say.

Speaker 3 (12:18):
No, no, none at all at all.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
He's got a struggle.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
You got to make a drive, you know, to get
to something.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah, held the story before JP. But I remember my
corporate office is in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and uh I went there.
The first time I went there, there was they sent
some guy to pick me up. One of their field
worker guys picked me up in his truck. He was
gonna take me to the office from the airport. And
he said, hey, do you mind if I stopped by
my house real quick eye guys, So yeah, sure. So

(12:44):
I'm enjoying the view as we go and he's driving
and he, uh, I go, so where do you live?
And he says Gettysburg. And I said, like the real,
the real Gettysburg. You know, I don't know anything about
that part of the of the the country except the history.
But I couldn't tell you if I was in Gettysburg
or not. And he pulls me there and there's this,

(13:06):
there's this field and a grove of trees. And for
those of you that have ever been to Gettysburg once
or maybe you you know, remember your first time you've
been to Gettysburg, man, you can feel it. You can
feel it. That history permeates you, like, oh it is attention.
And I was just feeling like somber. I was feeling

(13:29):
touched man, And I'm not usually like that. I'm not
usually that type of guy. And it was really affecting me.
And I asked the guy. I go, WHOA. I said,
I'm almost feeling this. You can almost see stuff going on,
like I'm imagining stuff. And he goes, oh, yeah, my
father and I have hunted that grove of woods for
my whole life. And he said he was telling me

(13:50):
about all the stuff they find and all the stuff
the like historic living historic people that kind of do
all this stuff and man, it just amazed.

Speaker 3 (14:01):
Yeah. Yeah, and it's it's even more amazing when you're
able to go door knocking. And it's really hard to
get permissions in Gettysburg around any major battlefield because those
doors have been on the private properties. They've been knocked
like over and over and over. And you know, I've
been blessed to be able to get uh you know,
several good permissions out of Gettysburg and uh, you know,

(14:23):
find some really nice relics. You know. You know, of
course obviously you're not allowed to metal detect on the
Park service property, but you know, all the locations and
private properties that are leading to Gettysburg and the coming
into Gettysburg and also the retreat route of Gettysburg is
just there's just so many spots and old homes and

(14:45):
places that have been there since eighteen hundreds and and
getting those permissions, yeah, I just I've been really blessed
with it, and you know, there's landowners that allow it.
I just think it's amazing that they do that for
the for the relic and that's why I think it's
really important that all rail hunters, you know, don't take
it for granted. Make sure you take care of there's

(15:07):
uh property owners, and do what you can to give
them what they need if they need help, just outside
of what you know, just if they need, yeah, the
fence mended, or if they need something done, you know,
and and it's personally you know, it's not because you, yeah,
you want to metal detect the property, but you know, truthfully,

(15:29):
it's just taking care of them because they're taking care
of you because they didn't have to allow you on
the on the properties. When you do stuff like that,
you're not, you know, just helping yourself out, but you're
helping that rail hunter that comes behind you that also
you know, knocks on that door he's got, that property
owner is going to be more likely to allow another

(15:49):
rail hunter to come in there in medical tech because
you treated them right. So that's what it's all about.

Speaker 1 (15:55):
Tell me about tell me about that one permission that
you just thought you never get that you finally got
and you know kind of I'm sure we all have
those stories right where you're like, man, I just never
thought i'd get that permission and I did. And maybe
either this is how or this is what it meant
to me?

Speaker 3 (16:14):
You know which one? I mean I got like ten
or fifteen.

Speaker 1 (16:18):
Like that the book.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
No, I'm joking, I'm joking. I'm just joking. I mean,
of course, everybody has their their one location that they
that you know, that they got. But you know, I'll
be completely honest with you, the first Civil War relic
that I've found, I never even was looking for Civil
War relics, and I did expect to find civil war relics.

(16:43):
And I went door knocking, and you know, and I
wanted to just find some old coins and I was
hoping to get into some really old silver and you know,
eighteen hundred silver or anything along those lines, because that's
the house site, that's what it was. And truth be told,
I wasn't even in an area that I even expected
civil war activity to be, and I wound up stumbling

(17:07):
into a camp, and you know, with a like a
pinky camp that was untouched and in an area that
no one would have even expected civil war activity to be.
And of course then I started doing research when I
found this stuff, and I did find some you know,

(17:27):
historical information about you know, there were Civil War troops
in that area for a particular reason, and I was
lucky enough to just stumble on the camp.

Speaker 1 (17:37):
So you know it.

Speaker 3 (17:39):
You know, a lot of people are well hunters are like, hey,
let me, let let me go hit this one location
because it's, uh, you know, it's a lot of Civil
war activity, or it's around a battlefield, but they're not
realizing that there's a lot of Civil War locations to
where they were there for reasons that weren't even related
to like a battlefield or a battle that they were
actually there protecting certain and you know, certain things that

(18:02):
were very important too at the time the US government
to protect. So and that's how I stumbled upon my
first Civil War camp. I was looking for old, old
silver coins and I found a Civil War boyd and
I was like, man. And then I found another one,
and then I found a button, and then I found
another button, and then I started just stumbling into everything

(18:23):
and all types of brass and I'm like, you know,
at the time, I was like, hey, you know, I
didn't know any better. And I started, hey, yeah, I
found a Civil War rock. I posted it posted, and
then people started reaching out like wow, and they're like,
you're on a good spot.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
You know.

Speaker 3 (18:37):
I was new, I was new into it, and I
just really didn't know here I am. I'm finding up.
I'm pulling up like ten Civil War you know, buttons,
infantry buttons, and I'm like, oh cool, look at the
buttons I found. And people were like, yousk what you're
you're pulling up and I'm like, yeah, they're buttons and
they're cool. But you know, at the time, I didn't
realize how important it was. But now that I've been

(18:59):
into metal detecting now for some time and doing what
I do, I realized how hard it is to actually
find a camp that is a virgin camp that's been untouched.
And needless to say, there was a lot of friend
requests and they were like, hey, how are you?

Speaker 1 (19:18):
They are real popular.

Speaker 3 (19:20):
And it blew up and people were like, hey, would
love to get metal detecting with you, but you know,
I'll be honest. I was just very conservative or kept
it to myself and and I hunted that thing out.
I took like two or three people to the spot
after I felt like I got everything, and I know
that sounds horrid. Yeah, I know that sounds horrible right now,

(19:45):
but they did come and they did find stuff.

Speaker 1 (19:47):
But how long ago was that? JB? Like, how long
did you start out?

Speaker 3 (19:52):
You know, as crazy as it sounds. I started in
twenty seventeen, maybe twenty sixteen. I started I Detected in
twenty sixteen. And it all started because because of my
youngest daughter. No, yeah, I've always wanted to get into
metal detecting. It was something I've always wanted to do.
But we were driving by a field and my youngest

(20:12):
daughter at the time, very young. She looks over into
the field and she's like, Hey, what's he doing? I said, Oh,
he's metal detecting. What do you mean, I say, all
he's looking for old coins, a bunch of you know,
coins and money. She's like, there's money in the ground,
and so oh yeah, She's like, I want to go
to metal detected. So I went out and bought a
metal attacker. I got the at pro and and took

(20:33):
her out. And the first time I took her out,
she wound up digging up an eighteen fifty three seeded
liberty ooh, half dollar. I should say it was a
big one. Guy. All right, let me let me throw
this on you too. The other side was smoothed out.
It was a love token.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
Oh so that's awesome, man. Yeah, yeah, a banger.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
Yeah, it was uh, you know it was just donereal
and of course my daughter when she found it, she
was like, oh cool, and I was like, uh no, seriously,
that's something kind of cool. And the landowner was kind
enough and it was super happy for her and allowed
her to have it. But you know, by the time
that happened, uh, she wound up just getting into uh

(21:15):
into the car and getting on her little iPad thing
or whichever, and she was like that, I'm done. And
so the metal detector went to me and that's all
you read. That's all you read. I mean, that's how
it That's how I got into metal techting crazy.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
Going out like home home, knocking on doors, going at
home sites and maybe looking for coins. And then those
relative you just talked about, those are your first kind
of wow relics.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
And I have them in the all and one you know,
actually several cases. But I had my first bullet in
in the one case. I know exactly which one it
is and uh, you know, marked it up and and
you know it's it's something really special to me. But
more importantly it was what got me in the real
kind of is more important and spending quality time with

(22:03):
my daughter, you know what I mean. Even though she's
even though she's not into it, and she didn't get
hooked like I wished she did. It was that quality
time that started out with her that got me into it.
But yeah, and then from there then there you go.
You know, I just got into it. But I've always

(22:25):
been into repairing and fixing antiques, and then yeah, we.

Speaker 1 (22:29):
Got to get into that for sure, Tony. You remember
your first bullet. So we don't have a lot of
Civil War here JP in Colorado, but we have a
lot of you know, the cavalry was here pre Civil
War at times eighteen fifty eight, stuff like that. And
so we do find these camps. Tony and I have
been lucky enough to get on a camp, same type
of thing where they stopped and maybe we're hanging out

(22:49):
a little bit, spent the night or two, and was
constantly stopping up and down this trail. So we call
them civil war relics, but they're not. They're Civil War
era type relics. Uh and uh, you remember your first bullet, Tony.
We realized that we.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Can find those either couldn't even imagine it like it.
It just blew my mind away. And it's very similar
to your story to where you know, it was come
to find out on a military road in a spot
a location that nobody had hunted before was a virgin
camp and nobody had hunted it yet. There was other
areas as we kind of got into More's research, there

(23:27):
are other areas surrounding it that they had documented this
particular spot, but that exact site where we found that
camp had never been touched before. We call it the
buttonhouse because all we found were buttons and bullets, tons
and tons of buttons and needles and sewing needles. But

(23:48):
just but yeah, that that relic especially I mean for us,
I mean different for you kind of you know near
ish Gettysburg or Maryland area.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
But for Colorado, it was like.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
I never you know, I was like, oh, if we
at eighteen hundreds were you know, late eighteen hundreds were happy.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
So you switched up your tactics. You dug every signal, Yeah,
every every signal.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
The only there's one area that we again and that
were just talking about, we believe were this where the
kind of the corral was. There's a lot of iron
right there. That's the only spot that we didn't clean out.
But if you go through those woods where we were
at if you found a tone, I.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Would be surprised. We dug that for close to ted
out pretty nice, but yeah, same idea.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
Holy cow, just couldn't even imagine that they were in
that spot right there.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Yeah yeah, yeah, they were all star car being bullets
so not really.

Speaker 3 (24:44):
Those are actually are nice bullets to dig, I mean
those are Yeah. I dug plenty of those. Yeah, I
was lucky enough to dig a bunch of in one
hole that was just tall tossed down into a hole.
It was like a cartridge box that had all of
them in one hole.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
So yeah, Beth had that too.

Speaker 2 (25:03):
I don't remember how many she pulled out in one hole,
but I think it was double digits. She may have
gotten ten out of one hole.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
It was crazy. Well that's how I found my first one.
Kind of crazy because I didn't really find it. Yeah,
but she was digging all kinds of them, and I
was in a different area that was a little lighter
and wasn't didn't have a lot of signals, but it
was my area, you know what I mean. I was
searching that area and she'd be like bull at, not
hear Tony go. But I'd be over there not finding anything.

(25:28):
And she's finally she goes ken, come over here.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
Yeah, I got I got it. I had a situation
like that. I had a really good signal and it
was a regular bullet signal, and I dug dug down,
and I started getting a bunch of black and I thought, okay, well,
maybe I'm into a fire pit. And then I saw
the green the little green tips, and then another green
tip and another green tip, and I was like, man,
what is going on here? And I kept really slowly

(25:52):
working at because once I realized it was a burnside
car being that was intact, and I was like, oh cow, well,
you know burnside car beings when they're in the ground
for extended period of time, and that brass just crudes
and they just as soon as they get hit the
oxygen in you know, the air of the natural air,
they just start crumbling away. But as I slowly removed
the dirt, I realized, you know, and I actually have

(26:15):
it on YouTube video. As I went into the hole,
I actually realized that it wasn't just one board, but
it was an entire location where I guess they just
kept dumping them in a hole. I think I got
like one hundred I think I got one hundred and
fourteen burnside books out of there, and yeah, and several

(26:38):
of them. When I mean several, I mean probably I
want to say probably about sixty of them stayed intact
and then the rest of them just breaking up and
crumbling away. But still, it was just amazing to find
something like that. It's just I mean, I guess, you know, yeah,
I'm spoiled because of the location, but even in a
location like that, you just don't come across stuff like that.

(27:00):
When you do, it's just a really amazing to be
able to have that opportunity to be.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
Able to do it, I think in that type of situation,
and Ken and I've had those where you step back
and and the question that always comes up is, so,
what is the story to that?

Speaker 1 (27:15):
Why was that like that? You know?

Speaker 2 (27:17):
And and obviously we don't know the exact story, but
we can come up with a story that kind of
fits what was going on. You know, they were you know,
that was the entry into the camp, and they just
dumped everything, you know, before they went into camp because
they didn't want to carry it or or whatever it was.
The way on the way out, they didn't want to
carry something, you know, what an incredible uh story to
it that we may never know why you found so

(27:40):
many like right in that spot.

Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah, yeah, it was it was nice.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Did they not like those car beings? Like I've heard
of certain rifles that people they just didn't like, you know,
like the Gallagher to where they would pitch those things,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 3 (27:58):
And yeah, I mean I found several gallon too. To
think about the gallaghers, it's just one I find those
are really corroded away, at least in the areas that
I've found them. Yeah, the burnside, say, casing falls apart,
and even at the bullard itself corrodes away pretty good too.
In the gallaghers as well. But yeah, I don't know,
you know, it's just who knows what the reasoning is

(28:19):
behind it? Because I know the Gallagher has a two
type types of Galagher. I think one of them has
the brass and then the other one has just the
regular paper sleeve. I might be wrong on that, Yeah,
I think there's two different types of Galagher bullets. So yeah,
so super cool.

Speaker 1 (28:38):
They didn't like those brass gallaghers because they would heat
up and explode in the breach, like those soldiers really
didn't like them. I think the Iowa seventh fired those
a lot or killed those, and so you always hear
these stories of them exploding in the breach. And I
always tell the story that actually found a cartridge, a
gallagher of brass cartridge that was all blown apart at

(28:59):
the side of an Indian battle. So, you know, my
mind goes to some poor soldier, you know, from the
Iowa seventh, was out there carbing and this thing jams
and explodes into breach. He's trying to clear it. Why
all this chaos is going on.

Speaker 3 (29:13):
It's like, wow, Yeah, the smith carbing's like that too,
the smith carbing Civil War ward. It actually has the
rubber casing. It is like one of the first rubber
casing boards that the Civil War used, and the smith
carbing when they would shoot it, you know, and then
they would break the lock open and pull the one out,
they would slide way, but it would heat up every time.
And from what I understand that the actual rubber casing

(29:34):
would sometimes get stuck into side the chamber to where
they couldn't get it out, and they had a lot
of problem with those. So yeah, I was blessed to
be able to restore a I did the eighteen fifty
seven Smith carbing. I restored it from the ground up
for some somebody, and man, the thing was beautiful. I
broke that that the firearm was actually located in a

(29:57):
barn and it was rested up up against a wall
in the barn and had a lot of moisture damage.
It was totally seized up to where it wouldn't function
at all, and it was really in bad shape. And
the person reached out to me, so, yeah, I restore
firearms too, and yeah, so I did that one from

(30:18):
the ground up to where I did electrolysis on every
nut and bolt and screw on everything. I reblued everything,
the barrel, every nut bolt, screw butt, played everything, got
it all all back together to where it was fully
functional to wear the hammer. And now when I got
it was totally rusted up and seized up and it

(30:39):
wasn't functional at all. But by the time the owner
got it back, it was fully functional. And yeah, not
that he would go and shoot it, but I mean
it was gorgeous. It turned out beautiful. Actually, I did
not want to send it back to him. I just
keep it it just because it wasn't something that you

(30:59):
just do every I mean, I had a lot of
a lot of time into it. Yeah, and what I mean,
I think I worked on it for like four months
and it was a lot of time, but I turned
out absolutely stunning. So yeah, and I think I did.
I I uploaded a video that from the beginning to

(31:21):
the end the progression of everything for people to just see.

Speaker 1 (31:25):
Yeah, if you're just joining us, we're here with JP
Hunts tonight. And if you're not familiar with JP. He
so I first became aware of JP were watching his
YouTube channel, Mason Dixon Diggers, and Tony's gonna put that
link in the in the chat. We also have a
down below in the video, but that's where I first
became aware of him. And then eventually his restoration uh process,

(31:48):
and videos and clips and images of him doing some
restoration of some relics started coming across my my my
social media and just became aware of that. And we're
definitely gonna talk to him about how he got into
that tonight. But if you don't know JP JP Hunts
and his restoration, you've been in a hole somewhere. I

(32:11):
think I think it's synonymous now with relic repair relic
restoration to say, send it to JP, send it over
to JP hunts. It's pretty amazing. Like we were talking
before the show, and I'm constantly saying, how did he
do that?

Speaker 2 (32:27):
Like I wish I had a nickel for every time
I said it because I'd be a rich man.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Yeah, seriously, and I'm not very good. So, you know,
we talked about how you got into relic hunting and
all that stuff and you're an amazing area and stuff
like how'd you get into relic repair? Like what's your background?
Is your background kind of in uh, you know, kind
of handyman repair, metal working, metal working work like that.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
Well, I would love to sit here and tell you
that a certified master jewel, but I'm not. You know
a lot of times that there's a lot of restores
out there that are that are geers that that are
really good with metal work and stuff, but I'm not.
So I'll just you know, to back it up. So
I'll tell you how things sort of you know, started out.

(33:17):
It might be a little bit long story, so just
bear with me on this.

Speaker 1 (33:20):
So you know, my.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
Father growing up was really into I know this might
soell crazy, but he was into model rail model rail roading.
And what I mean by that is it was kind
of obsessive. Uh he But it wasn't the small little
model rail roads that you see people have. He actually
had a large scale And when I mean large scale,

(33:44):
it actually went all through the entire basement. There was
mountains and and like bridges it went over. But when
I mean obsessive, it actually went through the foundation of
the house and went outside and went all over the outside,
throughout the entire backyard. Now I bring this up for

(34:06):
a reason because my dad was very meticulous about how
he did things. And he was very good with working
or building things and making things okay, or fixing things,
and you know, he would build bridges or build things
or make things having to do with metal work or
whatever it had to do with. When it was working

(34:28):
with the locomotives, and some of them, you know, they
weren't electric. I mean they were actually like fuel fed
to where you know, they were live steam locomotives that
went through all through It was amazing. He was, you know,
published in a couple of magazines or whatever it may be,
and it was just amazing. So he had a workshop
I was young, you know, when I mean young I

(34:50):
was a kid, and he had a workshop and he
would make stuff and do stuff in there, and and
and he was very ocd about how he did it,
and uh it looked really good. But I would sneak
into his relic or not his rol can, but into
his workshop, and myself and my other brother, my my
brothers and especially my younger brother, and you know, we

(35:13):
we would go in there and and uh fiddle around
and do what do uh do things that sons shouldn't
do to their to their father's equipment or you know,
I'm surprised I didn't burn my parents' house down, because
you know, there was you know, he had his workshop
and and he had a lot of stuff in there
that you know, he could do metal work with so

(35:37):
in making things. So I would go into his workshop,
and you know, even at a young age, I would
want to make make like jewelry. I I thought, how
cool would we be for me to make crosses? So
I would literally like carve, carve designs or make designs
in like wood and melt metal and pour it and

(35:59):
try to make or trying to make jewelry at a
young age. Like I said, I'm surprised, I didn't burn
my parents' house down, but I would make things just
for like friends and stuff like that. And so I
was really good with metal work even at a young age,
or working with stuff or working with my hands and
detail work. And I've always been very OCD even you know,

(36:20):
my mother used to comment about it that I could.
I was never happy with something. I always had to
have it just right, and even when it was just right,
I was still never happy with it. So you know,
you know, like I said, it's a long story, but
it sort of started out with that and then it
just went into Then I got into metal detecting. But

(36:43):
I was always good with fixing relics or repairing antiques
or I always wanted to get into that and do
things or fix things. So I always had that with me.
And then I got into metal detecting, and truth you told,
I was out in metal detecting with a friend and
you know, he found a breastplate and a breastplate was

(37:04):
tacoed over. When I mean it was tacoed like this.
He said to me, Oh man, it's just too bad.
I can't even lay it the flat. Well, then it
registered in my head, like like I'm good with stuff
like that, like, hey, you know, let me see what
I could do. And he was like, you sure, and
I was like, yeah, I mean I think I can
get that thing taken care of it. He was like, wow,

(37:26):
I got nothing to lose. I mean, it's a taco
I can't even display it. So he gave it to me,
and I don't know, probably like a week later, I
had that thing flattened out and it was clean and
it looked good and gave it back to him and
he was like, oh my gosh, Horely can I can't
believe you did this. And I posted that up on
one site and that went to somebody I think was

(37:51):
in Louisiana. They had a breastplate that they dug. Again.
They reached out to me and said, I saw the
work that you did. I want you to do this.
This isn't that a say, hey, wait a second, I'm
not a you know, I'm not a professional restorer. I
just this was just something for a friend. And you know,
in to back up a little bit, even before that
breast bad, I was still working on like helping friends out.

(38:14):
I was doing stuff. It was just sort of behind
the scenes, like hey, you got this that's messed up. Cool,
I'll take care of it. You got that, I'll take
care of it, you know what I mean. Someone had
something that messed up. I just took care of it
for but you know, it took off. And then the
person in Louisiana reached out to me. They had a
breastplate that was totally folded, like forty five degree back angle.

(38:34):
The lead was missing, and I was like, okay, well
let me see what I could do. You know, I
can't promise you anything. He sent it to me and
I crushed it. What I mean, I crushed it. I
need crush it. But it turned out beautiful and it
really turned out be over to the point where I
was like, wow, this this is you know, I got
something here. Maybe you know this is something that's you

(38:57):
know that I could do that that just helped people
out well, and that's what I like to do. I
just like to help out the diggers. I don't do
this for you know, any huge monetary gain. I just
do it because I want to help out the diggers.
And I posted it and I like posted it just
to surprise him and then linked him to it, and
it exploded from that point on that exploded, and then

(39:19):
it was just like, hey, there's this guy out there.
He's doing stuff. And now I'm up to where I'm
getting like five or ten, closer to ten requests a week.
I can't even keep up. I mean, I shouldn't say
I can't keep up. I'm keeping up. I'm turning them
around really quick. But it just it took off crazy.
I mean, it's just it's taken off. I know that's

(39:42):
sort of long and maybe you know process of how
I got here, but now that I'm here, it's just
it's it's exploded. And I think we talked about it
before the shell. I mean I had people from Australia
reaching out to me. I had someone a curator from
Canada reached out to me from a museum wanted me

(40:03):
to restore some buttons. It's just it's a blessing and
that's the way I look at it.

Speaker 1 (40:09):
But you know, I just don't know how you do it, man, Like, yeah,
like you do. Uh, It's it's crazy. Would you mind
if I showed some of your work. I've got to
kind of up on my screen.

Speaker 3 (40:20):
Man, I didn't know you were going to do that,
but sure.

Speaker 1 (40:22):
You're okay with that don't show Yeah, check it out.
I I just don't you, I know, if you've never
seen JP's work before, there's gonna store man. Yeah. Okay,
let's start with something not simple, but something smaller.

Speaker 2 (40:38):
It's not simple to jump right in there we go.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
Okay, let's do this one.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
None of them are simple.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Okay you remember this one?

Speaker 3 (40:47):
Oh yeah, I just recently to finished that one.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
Yeah. So what is this first? Before I start going.

Speaker 3 (40:51):
On, it said, that's a Civil War Martin Gale heart
Martin Gale. So if people aren't familiar with that, that
actually went on that chest of a horse of a
cavalry horse of a for Civil War soldier. It just
went right on the chest and had straps that went
around that were mounted into the soldiers saddle and everything else. Yeah,

(41:14):
pretty cool find. They're really hard to find. They're really
rare to find.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
Yeah, So as we go through here, this is kind
of some of the conditions that he was dealing with.
And so as we go through this, I mean you
look at that and you're like, boy, that's gonna be tough, right,
I mean, who would even try to straighten that out
or try to you know, it'd be like I found
this thing. It's pretty wiped. It's pretty uh, but as
we start going through this here look at this. Yeah,

(41:41):
like that had to take a little while. Yeah, it's
pretty but to go from you know that to this,
you know that's that's looking pretty good, right.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
Yeah. And just to also clarify things, I mean, what
you're showing there that the previous photos of the actual
back the lead backing which you're going to have the
metal straps in it to hold it to the leather.
And then what you're showing there now is the actual
front of the of the of the buckle or of
the Martin Gale. But I mean what is more important

(42:14):
to me is that for the relic hunters that are
out there, it's it's really important to try to make
sure that you're getting that exact patina. So if you're
looking at as you look at that photo and you're
looking at the left side of that, you can notice
that that was the location where mostly that entire outer
rim was missing, and even on the right side of it.

(42:35):
And what I like about this Martin Gal more than
anything is the patina match. I mean that just when
you when I finished this one, I was like, man,
this is really hard to even tell that it was
even repaired. But you know, most of the people that
realized or no know me with restorations, I don't repair everything.
I repair the major damage, and I leave flaws and

(42:57):
I leave things that are there. So for instance, in
the you know where your arrow is to the upper right,
you can see there's a lot you know that I
left there that was where it was bent. But I
just put it back into its proper form. But I
left those crease lines there. And then down in the
center you see the raised nodules that are sticking out.
I mean that's obviously from the iron deposits that are

(43:19):
coming through to the front. Could I have repaired that, sure,
But to me, that gives a character, it gives it
its originality to it to to where it looks really good.
So you know, I repair enough to where it's the
major damage, to where it's presentable, to where it can

(43:40):
go with on display. But I don't, at least I
feel I don't go too far. Now, if if a
relic owner, you know, and I give them that option,
if they say, hey, I want to have it all done,
I want to have this done and that done. It's
not my relic to dictate to somebody what they should
or shouldn't do. I give them what I personally would do,

(44:04):
or what my experience with something to that level what
I think they should do. But ultimately it's up to
the relic owner to make that ultimate decision, you know.
You know, there's that fine line when it comes to restorations,
and you know that's a hot topic, and we'll go
ahead and get into that and I'll just break the
ice with it. You know, there's some people that say

(44:25):
you should never restore relics, and there's some that say
you do. And to the people that say that you
should never restore a relic, you know, I respect that.
I don't. I don't say that you're wrong. I don't
say that you you you you know you're wrong for
saying that too. But it also is two for it

(44:45):
because opposite right. So, for someone that owns a relic
that digs it up, if they ding it with their
shovel or they mess it up, they tearing it out
of the ground, and if they wanted to restore their relic,
no one should bash that individual or make them feel
bad for wanting to display it properly, you know. So
I don't push restorations on anybody. I tell them that

(45:07):
I provide a service, and if they want me to
fix the rock, I can fix it if they choose
choose to have it done. If they don't want to
have it done, I respect that too. I go either way,
and I just you know, I do whatever somebody wants
me to do. If they say, hey, I don't want
you to fix the lead on the back, but I
just want you to unfold it, that's what I do.

(45:30):
If they say, hey, I want you to fix the
entire thing, that's what I do. I just provide a
service and I lead it to the rolicator because they
are the holder of that relic, to pass it down
to future generations. But as you know, I give a
certificate of restoration with every rolic that I do.

Speaker 1 (45:49):
The patina match and the patina. You know, keeping a
hold of patina, I think, is what's so amazing about
your work. Yeah, because you don't. You don't polish it up,
you don't try to change what it is. You just
put it in a little bit of better shape. This
is a this is a belt buckle right that came
into you. This is the original condition, you know, this

(46:09):
looks like what we would find out there. I know,
I never found a belt buckle or a plate out
here in Colorado. But you know, as we start going
through this, it's pretty you know, it's damaged. I'm sorry,
Oh am, I not. Oh I'm sorry, I'm not.

Speaker 2 (46:25):
I'm still Yeah, God, you're looking at at one of
the other seven screens that you've got.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
I thought it was a screen share. I did, sorry
about that. Here we go, uh share a screen and
that one that's it? Sor right, here we go. That's
a belt buckle, not a not a box plate, right.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
Yeah, you know I think that is a box plate. Okay,
but I'm now, maybe it's a buckle. I've worked on
so many relics that's sometimes it's hard to remember, and
I apologize for that. But maybe this is a buckle.
I would have to see the back of it.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
But yeah, yeah, this is pretty it's pretty pretty damaged.
I mean, the owner of this brought this to you
kind of wanted to see what you can do with it,
and that was their desire, like you just said, right,
and as you start a baby box plait, baby box plate, yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:21):
Baby us box plate, which is rare to come by
I mean, yeah, you get to normal box plates. But
and just so people are aware that, you know, you
have your cartridge box plates. You know, because you have
viewers that are watching this that I don't know a
lot about civil war information. So just to bring people
up to speed, this is a cartridge box plate. That's
or sometimes these smaller ones would be actually on the uh,

(47:47):
primer pouch, the smaller pouch that a civil soldier would wear,
and they usually have the larger ones that are on
the bigger cartridge box plate.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
Yep, you know it's gonna come up later. I'm probably
jumping the gun here a little bit. But how many
people don't believe what you've done? Is there a lot
of people that say, there ain't no way, Well.

Speaker 3 (48:08):
You know, no. In the beginning, when I first started
restoring relics, you know, when it came to war relics.
In the beginning, there was one there was one comment
that was like, oh, now, I don't know if he
was serious or if he was just joking because it
looked that good. Uh he commented that, oh you had
to photoshop that. Now. Now, just to let you know,

(48:33):
I'm completely transparent and you you guys are aware of
that by the fact that I posted before and afters.
But I'm a little bit even more transparent with the
actual relic owner to where I get them before, middle,
and after photos. Okay two they can have for their records.
Now when someone makes a comment like that or or

(48:57):
that one individual that did it, would it appled man,
because I'm like, why would I photoshop it? If then
I'm sending that relic back to the owner and it
it's going to look the same as what I posted.
Like you mean, I would photoshop something and then send
it back to the owner and it would be something
completely different. Now that what you see or what I

(49:19):
post online for social media for the viewers is what
the owner is getting back in the mail as a
completed relic, you know what I mean, That's exactly what
they're getting. And there's the reason why I post it
before and afters. So yeah, as you see it like that,

(49:40):
I love the chocolate Patinas, But as you see there that,
you know, I like to put that there because you know,
I want people to see that this is now washed
and then after I work on it, this is what
it looks like. And I just I try to, you know,
be as transparent as possible. Oh that one, I remember
this one, now one thinking of one, So this one

(50:02):
is really hard repair on me. This was really hard.
So this did have the Now I remember this one.
This had to make her spam the smith and smith
then I can't remember right now, but it has to
make a stamp that's on that and the lead is

(50:24):
cracked and damaged all the way around it. And I
had to make sure that once I discovered I had
a maker stamp, I had to make sure that I
kept that maker stamp in that lead. This is more
difficult than you think because lead melts at a lower
temperature than other metals. And to preserve that maker's mark

(50:47):
is really hard to do. And I was able to
preserve that makers mark on this. I mean it turned
out beautiful.

Speaker 1 (50:53):
I think that.

Speaker 3 (50:55):
Yeah, it turned out beautiful. The owner of that was
super stoked when he got that back, especial because I
was able to maintain that maker's mark and keep it there.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Okay, how did you go from that two that?

Speaker 3 (51:11):
Well, I mean, I can tell you the true I
can tell you the truth exactly how I started out
with Bourbon and I.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
Help started and somewhere, Yeah, it turned out. Yeah, look
at that.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
Yeah, it turned out beautiful, and so you know, and
that still has the chocolate Patino in there, and I
just all I do is I put the Doug look
on it. Now. I want to go into this why
you bring this veto up for all the viewers to say,
and just to give a little a recommendation. Okay, I
didn't have it with this plate, but I would love
to have it with every plate that I do or

(51:49):
relic that I do. Recommendation to relic hunters that are
out there and when they find a relic that is
damaged or that they ding do me a favor, especially
if you've been metal detecting day and you got a
peanut butter Jelley sandwich with you. Eat that peanut butter
jelly sandwich, take that plastic bag and put the same

(52:09):
dirt in that plastic bag that you dug that relic
out of that hole. And the reason why is because
that dirt patina and the minerals that are in that
dirt that made that patina is the exact dirt that
I would like to put back on the relic after
I restore it. Okay, so once i'd restore it, I

(52:30):
would like to put that exact dirt back on your
relic because it gives it that original patina look. So
if I don't have that dirt, I then have to
match up different types of dirt that I do have
that I do have that with that relic, specifically to
try to match the dirt that it was dug from. Now,

(52:53):
dirt and patina are completely different. What I mean, there's
the patina under the dirt, but it's always nice to
have the original dirt that you dug it with, because
when I start a relic or work on it, I'm
cleaning all that dirt off, and to have that original
dirt from that hole is beneficial. Another little hint, Okay,

(53:16):
if you're a relic hunter, you dig up a plate
like this and it's damaged out in the field, and
you happen to dig up like ten silverl war bullets
or camp lead specifically camp lead in that same area,
and you don't care about the camp lead, please send
that camp led with your buckle because I like to

(53:38):
keep these items or these relics as original as possible,
So I would like to put that camp lead that
you found near your buckle on the back as the
lead that used to be there or that's damaged at
it to it. So that's what I mean. Like, I

(53:58):
do my best to keep anything as original as possible.
So if you have original camp leg, send it with
your relic. If you have uh dirt that's there, send
it with your relic because that makes it better on
an outcoma I feel to where yeah, you know, it
works out a whole lot better. And another the biggest

(54:19):
recommendation that I can give somebody is if they ding
something with their plate or they mess it up, do
not do not try to straighten it, do not try
to do anything with it. Send it to me in
the condition that you dug it up in You know,
I just recently had someone tried to or asked me
to prepare a specific button and I told them that

(54:39):
I wouldn't do it because they put a bunch of
oil on it. And I'll explain why later. I'll explain
why later. You don't want to do that if you
want a restoration done. But I see another, just one more.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
We'll look at one more and then we can. We
got a bunch of questions like this one's ridiculous. I
think this is another, like no way right, I remember
that one. All right? Do you ever think no way?
And then it challenges you and you, Oh, I have
a note.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
I have a couple of no ways that are even
in my workshop right now that I'm like, why did
I take this on? And and this is this is
another one. Now I can tell you looking at this one,
if it's the one that I remember correctly, I can
tell you why I took this one on. The owner
of this this plate, if it's the one that I'm

(55:28):
thinking of, they entered this plate. It was the first
plate they ever dug and they dug this one up
in Gettysburg. They sold that, okay, So that right there
was I'm all about helping to digger out. It's their
first plate, they dug it up in Gettysburg. I really
wanted to make sure that I took care of this form.
So if this is the one that I'm thinking of,

(55:49):
which I think it is.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
I mean that is it's the crack in the middle, holy.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
Crap, yeah, disaster right.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
Yeah, it'll be like, oh my gosh, it's still a plate,
you know, Like well yeah, and then Gettysburg forget.

Speaker 3 (56:06):
It, like yeah, I mean this this one top you know, yeah,
got me.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
So, yeah, you were kind of going through kind of
the condition of it. Uh, it just looks, you know,
maybe beyond repair. I don't know, man, almost two pieces
looks like real close, Like I wouldn't even want to
touch that. Yeah, I want you to touch it, and
JPU take this on. Yeah, so what are these materials?

(56:36):
This is brass and lead, right.

Speaker 3 (56:38):
Yeah, so you're going to have a brass stamped uh
sheet brass that's on the front that they used in
a subward and then you have the lead back in
and then you know, I like to call it a backbone.
You know, some people might not call it that, but
I refer to it to the backbone of a plate,
which is gonna in this plate plate.

Speaker 4 (56:56):
It's a Carter's box plate. So it's going to have
the actual loops and it's two wires that are going
to be iron wires that run inside the lead that
come out into a loop on the ends. Of course,
a buckle is different, and I like to always call
it the backbone structure of the buckle.

Speaker 3 (57:14):
And in this situation was completely snapped. Yeah, it was.
I don't know what I was thinking. And as you
can see right there in the last voto. You can
see what I mean by the two lines that come down.
That's what I call the backbone structure of it. And
depending on how that's rolled, if it's bent or snapped
or rolled in this situation, I find it easier to

(57:36):
work with. I know that sounds crazy, and the backbone
is actually bent that way rather than along the lateral
line of the backbone, because when you have more of
a role like this, it's a little bit harder to
work with than a roll or than a taco. I
find I've done.

Speaker 1 (57:55):
Look at that. You know you just took a picture
of some other one in there.

Speaker 3 (58:01):
Well, that's why I do before and after, and that's
why I zoom in for parts of the specific buckle
you'll notice, or plate. I add the details or show
the details of the original plate or buckle, and then
I add the additional photos at the end that have

(58:21):
the same uh details or flaws that are in it.
Like I said, I leave some flaws on the plate,
you know what I mean. So, and it just turned
out beautiful.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
Yeah, that's gorgeous.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
It turned out.

Speaker 1 (58:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (58:35):
I love that chocolate, but this one has more of
like a chocolate rust putina to it, and that's the
way it was when I washed it off. Initially it
had a chocolate rustina to it. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:47):
Wow, are you willing to say how long this took
you if you remember?

Speaker 3 (58:51):
Yeah, that one I think took me twelve hours.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
That was it was twelve weeks. Twelve hours.

Speaker 3 (59:01):
So yeah, that was a joke. Now, yeah, it took
me a lot of time. I mean. Now, look, I
welcome anybody that could to go on to my Facebook page.
I always link the the owner of the plate into
my photos. I do that with every restoration that I post.
I do that for a reason, not just for the

(59:24):
relic owner to be notified that I posted their item.
I want other relic hunters did do me a favor?
Reach out to these to these relic owners that I've
prepared their plates for, and I want you to ask
them what they thought about their transaction or what they
thought about I shouldn't say transaction or their dealings with
me when I came to restoring their relics. I post

(59:46):
that there for a reason, because you know, I pride
myself on my reputation and I want people to be
happy with what I do for them. But and I
welcome you to ask them how long it took them
to get their relics back. I'm completely transparent with people,
and I tell you tell people, like I said, I
usually get five to ten requests a week. I usually

(01:00:07):
have many relics in front of me at a time,
but depending on the extent of damage, you know, I
like to have at least about a month to a
month and a half turnaround. And to me, I think
that's my average. And you know, and I've stuck that
at average. And some people will chime in on this

(01:00:29):
on the show here or or even mentioned even on
Facebook that I've had relics turned around to people even
quicker than that. I do my best to get it
back to you as quick as possible, like I just had.
I was down at the Virginia Relics show. I went
in there and you know, I took my agreements in
me with me in my backpack, and you know, I

(01:00:50):
had several people stop me and what restoration has done?
And I took relics back with me. And that was
that was on sat. And I got Spur from somebody
on Saturday was completely snapped and bent, and I got
it from him on Saturday, and I sent him a
message home Monday and told him his spur is completed

(01:01:14):
in great shape and and it'll be out in the
mail to him real So you know, it all depends
on the item of the relic. I mean, obviously the
ones that you see it really bad, they take it
a little bit longer. But if it's something that's smaller
that I can work with, I turn it around quick,
I will.

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
Yeah. You talk about asking people that have worked with
you before. This is our friend Michael him. He's a
preacher digger on YouTube, good friend of the show, good
friend of ours personally, and we dug with him in England.
Great guy, great guy. Yes, and just quick, this is
kind of a shot of you know, this kind of
plate that he found. It's not in very good shape,
looks pretty banged up, you know what I mean. And

(01:01:52):
you end up doing that like his display there is beautiful.
You got that certificate a restoration up there.

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
So yeah, yeah, I tell you I do that with
all the rest istus.

Speaker 1 (01:02:03):
Yeah. So a great, great job. And you know we've
talked to him too about working with you, and I
think we brought up brought you up with him and
he's like, oh, he did an amazing job for me,
and I know we've sent other people your way, and
we're always saying here on the show that you know,
if you want to got something that needs to be repaired.
I don't do you have any competition out there? Like, man,

(01:02:25):
I'm telling you you do such great work. I don't
know that. I guess I just I don't know everybody
out there, but at least in our social media world,
our YouTube world, I don't know anybody else is doing it.

Speaker 3 (01:02:37):
Well. You know, I will say there's other restorers out
there that are doing it, and they are doing a
remarkable job. I mean I've seen some of the work
as other restorers have done, and you know, I just
am in the all. I'm just like, wow, that's great,
It's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:02:54):
I you know, I commend to all the other Row
crustores that are out there that are doing the same
line of work that I'm doing, and because I think
they feel the same way that I do. Is that
you know, it's about preserve, preserving the relics and and
putting them in a better condition, uh than what they

(01:03:16):
were into where they're able to be displayed for future
generations to enjoy. Because I mean that's what it's all about,
you know what I mean, getting them out of the ground.
You're you've already saved them by getting them out of
the ground. But if we can, if we can preserve
into where they can get passed down as family air rooms,
that's to me, that's what it's all about. And that's

(01:03:37):
that's what I care about. It's just, you know, preserving
one relic at a time. That's the reason why I
had that on the back of my T shirt, preserving
one relic at a time, because that's what it's all about,
just passing it out to two other generations to enjoy.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
Yeah, it's amazing works. Then we take our hats off
to you for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:03:56):
Well it's funny metrical.

Speaker 1 (01:04:00):
Cheers to you, buddy chairsstairs.

Speaker 3 (01:04:06):
So you mentioned Preacher Digger, you know, and and and
you know he's a great guy and stuff. And I'm
always bringing this up because you mentioned, uh, Preacher Digger,
and I know he's a preacher and stuff and very faithful.
And you know, a lot of people realize I'm you know,
or know that I'm very faithful to you can tell
by the post that I put all my feeds and stuff.
But you know, you know, Like you know, I've told

(01:04:27):
you this already and I've mentioned it to other people.
But you know, I'm not in this for you know,
making any you know, monitor a huge monetary gainst. Yes,
I get paid for what I do, but it's not
to the extent for the amount of time that I
put into these roots, you know. And I bring this
up because you know, there's been many situations to where
some people are just in a bad situation in their life.

(01:04:49):
And I don't mean financially, uh, they can afford to
fix something. But what I mean is, you know, there's
been a number of occasions that people have just been
in a bad situation in their life to where they've
got family members or loved ones that are ill, or
somebody that they're just struggling in life. And to me,
you know, repairing item for this person just to put

(01:05:10):
a smile on their face, to take them out of
a dark situation, that is important to me. So there's
been a couple of situations to where you know, I've
restored relatives for free just to put a smile on
their face or just to you know, make them happy
because they were in such a bad situation. There's also
a situations to where you know, instead of you know,

(01:05:32):
you know, paying me to repair your item, you know
they've actually made a donation to my church. You know,
because right now, you know, the church community is struggling,
you know, to get people and members into the church,
and you know they've made a donation. You know, we
had the agreement, Hey, why don't you not pay me?
But if you don't mind, can you make a donation
or my church? And how about this on top of that,

(01:05:55):
I'll have my church, you know, right a a receipt
to you to where you can use it as a
tax right off to where then you're you're benefiting and
you're getting a rout that's restored for you and you're happy.
And my church is benefiting to where they're getting a
you know a little financial stability within the church. And

(01:06:16):
to me, that's what it's all about. You know, we're
all here just trying to do what we can to
make people happy and preserve roics.

Speaker 1 (01:06:23):
So that's a good point. Love it, Yeah, I love that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
Hey, you we were looking at those rolics, that first one,
that first really bad plate that we were looking at.
You said, you know, the guy kind of drew you
in because it was from Gettysburg, right, I mean that
was one of the deciding factors because it was just
a mangled piece of mess.

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:06:41):
I gotta recorrect on that one. As a female on
that one, we'll say, you know, because I just think
it was a female owner on that one.

Speaker 1 (01:06:47):
Gotcha, gotcha?

Speaker 3 (01:06:49):
Gotcha?

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
Well, I mean, I mean, speaking of Gettysburg, let's let's
do a giveaway. You before we started offline and stuff
like that, you were like, hey, you guys, mind if
we just if you if you can give something away tonight.
You kind of told us a story about what you
wanted to give away, So I want to give it
to you here and tell everybody that's listening live right
now kind of what you wanted to bring to our

(01:07:13):
listeners and get back to them.

Speaker 1 (01:07:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:07:17):
Yeah, so you know, I'll tell you. Like I said,
it's all about paying things forward. You know, I've been
blessed with an ability to do what I do and
restore relics. You know, God has blessed me with a
gift to be able to do what I do. And
I've also been blessed with locations of where I live
to be able to meddle attack to find a bunch
of nice stuff. So this isn't anything huge, but as

(01:07:38):
many of you know, when I restore relics for people
throughout the year, anybody that I do a restoration for,
they at the end of the year are entered into
a free giveaway that I give away nice stuff. And
you know, I'm I give away breastplates and I give
away Civil War buttons, you know, Confederate buttons and stuff
like that, just to show my appreciation to the individuals

(01:08:01):
that trusted me to work on their relics. Okay, So
you know, in this situation, I was just like, heck,
what the heck? And like I said, it's nothing really big,
but I thought, you know, it is personal to me
because it's something that I actually dug up. This is
something that I dug up personally, And like I say,
it's nothing huge, but to me, for someone that might

(01:08:24):
not have a Gettysberg relic, this was dug up on
the Gettysburg Retreat route it to get Gettysburg Gardener bullet
that I personally dug up and it's dropped. It's in
perfect condition with a beautiful platino, And this is just
something that I wanted to give away to anybody tonight.
That's uh, you know, joining in to sort of get

(01:08:44):
to know me as not just someone that restores relic,
but you know, as an individual. You're getting to know
me as an individual. And I just wanted to show
my appreciation to anybody that's chiming in tonight on the
show and give away this Gettysburg route that I personally
dug on a retreat route. So it's a beautiful dropped

(01:09:06):
dropped boy, and whoever wins it, it's yours. I guess.

Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
Yeah, it doesn't give me goosebumps because.

Speaker 3 (01:09:13):
It's super cool.

Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
When you dig this up, you're certainly downplaying it. But
but in my world, and I know Ken's world, and
I'm sure everybody else is listening, that that is an
incredible relic not only to find, uh and to display,
but to win. I mean, what an awesome thing for
you to be able to give away. And I know
everybody's really appreciative of that. I mean, I do I

(01:09:36):
have goosebumps for you kind of telling about that thing?

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
You know, so very very cool. How do how are
we gonna give you that a weight to night tony?

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
Uh, We're just you're gonna send it to me. I'll
send you my address.

Speaker 1 (01:09:50):
Everyone. I'm just hyping in the Gettysburger dress. The more
that people that can remember it, they're going to be
the winner. All right.

Speaker 2 (01:09:57):
So what we're gonna do is, if you're listening live
on Adventures in Dirt or fifty to eighty Adventures in
the live chat, you guys have to be here live.
You got to be able to type into the live chat.
We're gonna give you a couple of minutes to type in,
and the keyword that you're going to need to type
in to get registered is going to be hashtag Gettysburg.

(01:10:18):
We've mentioned it a couple of times tonight. Yeah, and
you know with your kind of attachment in that area,
so you know you're giving away Gettysburg, dropped bullet, let's
let's get out hashtag Gettysburg. Yeah, hashtag g E T
T Y S b U r G. Put that space
space in between, there no space done. Put it in
either chat and they'll get you guys into the giveaway

(01:10:41):
and we'll draw it here momentarily live. And let me
just say, let me back up lower forty eight please,
just because of of of shipment and costs and that
kind of thing, and I hate to do that kind
of thing, but uh, you know, JP is kind enough
to be able to get this out, you know, on
his dimes, so let's not break his bank. But lower

(01:11:02):
forty eight hashtag Gettysburg gets flying.

Speaker 1 (01:11:05):
Now, look at all this. I saw a Pop Dan
Dan in there earlier and he's like, Man, I'm not
gonna I'm not gonna enter it because I'm up in Canada.
I don't up in Canada as Yeah, I appreciate that,
Pop can Good to see you here, by the way, buddy.

Speaker 2 (01:11:17):
Yeah, no capital G practical Ken, you can just type
it in like it is on the screen.

Speaker 1 (01:11:22):
Yep. I know we've got forty seven people.

Speaker 2 (01:11:25):
Watching right now in both channels, and we've got twenty entries,
so you guys better get in.

Speaker 1 (01:11:30):
Yeah, I get going. If you're just working out there,
jumping the tag, jumping the chat, start typing that in
real quick while they're typing stuff in. Tony doesn't have it.
We didn't prepare for it. But you want to tell
him about that relic you have and see what he
thinks of it. Not that if he thinks he could
repair it, but just it's an interesting it's very unique,
interesting find.

Speaker 3 (01:11:49):
You did it a tourny? Could I cut just briefly
only because it sounds crazy. I'm a dog owner and
I have a dog that's sitting at the back door,
that's trying to out the back door. Just two seconds and.

Speaker 1 (01:12:06):
I apologize. He's really going to go refresh as bourbon.
You know that's what he's doing. Right.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
Shoot, you got me one then too, while you're up there.

Speaker 1 (01:12:18):
You know what I mean. You know what you're going
to talk about with that, right? Yeah? I know about that. Yeah,
that's pretty good. No, when he gets back, it's just
a cool find. It it's awesome. Yeah, I wish I
had it with me.

Speaker 2 (01:12:31):
Like I said I last week, I was telling everybody
we're redoing the house and everything. I'm in the actual
laundry room is where I'm at right now, but my
previous office we've packed up everything. It's becoming the bedroom
again for the showing for the house, so all of
my relicts were all packed up. Uh and then you
mentioned it like two minutes before we go live. You're like, hey,
do you have that?

Speaker 1 (01:12:49):
I'm thinking no, it's in a box in the garage.
So we'll have to just describe.

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
But I know a lot of people have already seen this,
this relic, but I can't wait to talk to him
about it and at least tell him about it, and
you know, maybe offline, I'll send him.

Speaker 1 (01:13:03):
A picture of it and stuff like that. I was
trying to find a picture on Facebook of it and stuff. Yeah.
Type in hashtag Gettysburg all one word, all lowercase, no
spaces hashtag Gettysburg to get in on this incredible giveaway
from JP hunts. It is a gardener bullet from Gettysburg
that he personally dug beautiful, dropped loustaid you guys like Scotch.

(01:13:25):
You know, it's an interesting story with that. I don't.
I don't know if Tony does either. But we recently
were somewhere. I gotta be careful because we actually can't
talk about it yet. But and it was really good, like, uh, no,
is it raining over there?

Speaker 3 (01:13:42):
Oh my gosh, it's downpourn.

Speaker 1 (01:13:45):
Your dog like I'm not going out.

Speaker 3 (01:13:46):
There, got my dog right here? No, sorry about that?

Speaker 2 (01:13:53):
Oh you're good. Yeah, we've got we've got some funny ones.
Practical Ken says, get his burger.

Speaker 1 (01:14:00):
Get his burger, Getty's bread. It says grubby tig. I
don't even know what that is. This always happens yp
whenever we ask people to type stuff in, they'll do
it and then they'll type it's fine.

Speaker 3 (01:14:14):
And so how many people do you have signed in
for the Winds twenty four?

Speaker 1 (01:14:19):
Twenty four in there right now, typing that on the screen, right, yeah, yeah,
yeah in the middle there, Yeah, get her done, hashtag
get her done. And after this, we do have a
lot of questions that have come in while we've been chatting,
and I want to get to some of those two
while people are typing in, Tony, you want to tell

(01:14:39):
that story of that item?

Speaker 2 (01:14:40):
Yeah, real quick, you know, offline. I'll give you more more.

Speaker 1 (01:14:44):
Details about this.

Speaker 2 (01:14:45):
But I was at a a site, a confirmed military
camp from eighteen fifty seven to eighteen fifty eight, dug
you know, dugging the tipic, digging the typical things, bullets, buttons,
you know. Found This is actually where we found some
gold coins to just throw that in there. But I

(01:15:05):
came up with this. I swear it was a button.
I mean a bullet came up as lead you know,
mid tone, sounded good, you know, things that we're looking for, right,
I'm all excited. I pulled it out and it is
a It looks to me like it's camp led. It's
kind of you know, it's a little bit of a
bigger piece of lead kind of it was like flattened
and kind of rolled over, and I was like, Okay,

(01:15:26):
well that's kind of cool. You know, it's still historical
because it's at this specific site. And I turn it over,
and this is all live on camera. I turn it
over to try to you know, clean off some of
the dirt and stuff. And it was actually a bullet
that was flattened out, and then they took a button
and rolled the button up inside this piece of lead
and wrapped the lead around it. You can see that

(01:15:48):
it's you know, it's it's a button. I'm pretty sure
I can read a little bit of the skullfull on
the back of it. I'm like, I know it's a
military button. And it's been in my possession now for
I don't know a little bit of time. And I
keep going back and forth, you know, and I've even
put it out on social media. Do I open up
this lead and see what kind of button it is?
The big mystery man, is the big missing you know,

(01:16:09):
we found some dragoon buttons. We found some uh general service.
I think we've got infantry buttons from this location as well,
and big yeah, really really cool relic and I really
just kind of want to leave it the way that
it is. I'll send you some pictures of it, but
it's a pretty neat, little uh little fun interesting.

Speaker 3 (01:16:31):
Send me some fetters and I'll take that. You know,
you know, this way I look at it, not every roll,
because you know, should be restored and some things should
just remain as they are. And like you know, some
people might think because I'm a restorer and I restore
rel except I push restorations on people, But I really don't,
you know what I mean. Ultimately, some some things just

(01:16:52):
need to be left to learn, and some things, you know,
I could see be restored. For instance, if you ding
it with your shovel and you constantly look at it,
you're reminded of the day that you actually struck your
only breast that you've dug up with your shoveler. That's
the type of thing that you want to get through there,
you know what I mean, Some things are just so
bad it's like what do I have to lose? But

(01:17:13):
in other situations. There's many situations to where you know
you just shouldn't restore relics. And I tell people that
all the time that you know is the risk work
the reward, and sometimes it's not, and you should just
leave it alone. And you know, I've recommended to several
people that you know, that's a beautiful h plate the
way it is, damage the way it is. Maybe if

(01:17:36):
you are concerned about what people think about how it
should originally look, leave that plate in the condition that
you have it, and just buy a repail and put
it next to it in a display case to get
people an ideal of Okay, this is what it's supposed
to look like. This is the way I do it,
And that's okay, you know what I mean, that's okay
to do. I just I'm a firm believer that you know,

(01:17:59):
certain relations should be restored and a certain ones shouldn't.
But ultimately it's not up to me, it's up to
the owner, and I just provide a service to help
people with what they want.

Speaker 2 (01:18:08):
The curiosity is, you know, I want to know what
kind of button it is, because you know, there's a
couple that I don't have yet. But man, to me,
like the personal part of it, that's that a soldier
laddened it, curled its button.

Speaker 1 (01:18:22):
You don't.

Speaker 3 (01:18:23):
So this is my thought process on it. And you know,
some might agree or some might disagree. If you have
a feeling that a Civil War soldier actually did that,
bented around and did it. Me, personally, if that was
my rock, now I'm only speaking if it was mine.
I can't tell you what to do with your rock.
I'm I only telling you if it was mine, if
a soldier did that to that item, me personally, I

(01:18:45):
would leave it the way it is. It's just my me.
I just feel that. You know, that's the way it's
meant to be, because that's what a civil soldier did. Now,
if you had a plate that was tumbled around in
the ground and it was modern PLoud damage, sure, damaged
by a plow or damaged by something else along those lines,
that's different, you know what I mean. But if you know,

(01:19:08):
just by looking at roar that just was likely done
by a soldier, then me, personally, that's history. You don't
repair it the way it is.

Speaker 2 (01:19:16):
And that's what I'm leaning on, And I haven't done
it because of that reason. But man, I want to
know what kind of button isn't there.

Speaker 1 (01:19:24):
I do love it.

Speaker 2 (01:19:25):
I love the way it displays in the story of
it because it is such a historical site. To me,
just means more than than you know, seeing if it's
an I or a D or something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:19:35):
So yeah, no, I get that winter back up again.
That killer. Yeah, it's out everyone.

Speaker 3 (01:19:43):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:19:44):
Gardner bullet is Gardner bullet from Gettysburg.

Speaker 3 (01:19:47):
Drops with a beautiful patina.

Speaker 1 (01:19:49):
It is beautiful. Look how big that thing is? Man?
What caliber is that? What caliber? With those gardens?

Speaker 3 (01:19:54):
I think that maybe it's fifty fourfour maybe fifty four.

Speaker 1 (01:20:00):
I wouldn't want that thing.

Speaker 3 (01:20:01):
In perfect condition? Nice, I mean it is absolutely beautiful.
It's perfect. I mean it's like it's like one of
the better gardener bullets that I've ever dug up. So
I just, uh, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:20:13):
Hey again in the lower case, get rid of the
capitol G. We'll see if that works. They had one
person to come in. You want to go ahead and
type that inrecky. Yeah, I don't know if the carcase. Yeah,
I don't think that actually matters, are not but I
don't know if it does.

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
So I didn't see it go up when he when
he put it in there, but want to make sure
he gets in.

Speaker 1 (01:20:34):
Tony Digger said, Tony ripped that off and then have
JP restore it like before before you ruined it. All right,
let's draw this winter. Good luck? All right, here we go.
Good luck to everybody. Uh, here we go, very generous here, JP,
that's awesome, buddy, good luck, Here we go. Who's it

(01:20:56):
going to be? Fingers crossed? Jim a steel ding ding
ding ding. Yeah, Jim Steele getting relations man. He stole
that thing, he got it. Good job, Jim, Good job,
Jim Steele. Jim. Yeah, you're going to send an email
to me Jim d k at Adventures in Dirt dot Com.

(01:21:17):
Go ahead and send that over to me with the
how we can get that out to you, and I'll
pass that on to JP and we'll get that right
out to you. So thank you for for congratulations.

Speaker 3 (01:21:29):
I think it's awesome. So it's a beautiful bullet, and
I'm sure he'll love it.

Speaker 1 (01:21:33):
That's right.

Speaker 3 (01:21:34):
Hopefully he's not anywhere near Gettysburg. Because it's kind of cool.

Speaker 1 (01:21:37):
To be similar, Like I got thirty of those. Jim says,
you know, it's.

Speaker 3 (01:21:46):
Just nice to have something that's you know, you you
don't have normal access to you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:21:51):
Yeah, we had our guest last week, Tony real quick.
Our guest last week was an author and we were
giving a one at one way one of his books,
and uh, the guy that won it turned out was
like ten miles away like that. He was on the
side of the river. Coincidence. He's like, oh wow, wow, yeah, crazy,

(01:22:14):
that was crazy, crazy, crazy good.

Speaker 2 (01:22:16):
We've got a whole bunch of questions and topics we
want to get to. We've got like six minutes left,
so we're gonna.

Speaker 3 (01:22:24):
Questions.

Speaker 2 (01:22:25):
Yeah, it doesn't have you found any cannonballs?

Speaker 3 (01:22:31):
Yeah, no, I actually have. So I was lucky enough. Now,
there was a long time that I just went along
for for a while, just finding a bunch of artillery
fragments and you know, partial ones, and I just got
so discouraged about it. But you know, I restored probably
like ten relics for an individual that was out Louisiana

(01:22:51):
Port Hudson, Louisiana, and he invited me to stay out
there with him for four days. Took me out to
a spot and he couldn't guarantee me any thing, but
he said Hey, we're in a good spots. Let's see
what you can find. And I came up on a
good signal in a creep bed and turned out being
a six pound, six pound cannonball with the bands still attached.

(01:23:13):
The bands that were still attached on it, so it's
a dropped It wasn't even fired, so it was yeah, amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:23:21):
Yep, have you restored a cannonball before?

Speaker 3 (01:23:26):
Now? I have not drilled them out to where you
know to make them a nerd, but I have done
electrolysis and wax seal on them for people, yes, and
for myself.

Speaker 2 (01:23:37):
So yep, gotcha, that's cool, very very cool. Yeah, I
had when we announced that you were going to be on.
I've got a friend out here in Colorado, so I
want to make sure that I get to this question.

Speaker 1 (01:23:49):
He dug.

Speaker 2 (01:23:49):
Recently, some uh some older for Colorado, at least some
older locks pad locks.

Speaker 1 (01:23:56):
Have you do you repair.

Speaker 2 (01:23:57):
Something like that as well? Have done any?

Speaker 3 (01:24:00):
Like I said, I'm completely transparent with people, so I'll
tell you I've never done a actual padlock to where
to see if I can get it functional again. Now,
the problem with the padlock that I would find is
that the internal components of that padlock, if it's been
in the ground, is what gets corroded or seized up.
And would the electrolysis that you would have done on

(01:24:23):
that freeze up some of those internal components enough to
where it could actually move or release the lock if
it is locked in, And then the other thing is
doing electrolysis obviously messes with the patina, and then I
would have to have a natural patina on it. And
I say natural because that's exactly what it is. It's

(01:24:45):
just a sped up natural patina that I put back
on the relics.

Speaker 1 (01:24:50):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, cool. Those old locks are cool for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:24:55):
Yeah yeah, I mean I'm open minded about it. If so,
if they want to try to reach out to me
or message me by all means, go ahead. And you
know there's there's always that uh, you know, figure it out.
Like I didn't know I could do what I do
until I did it, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:25:10):
So look at this comment that came in. Yeah, we
got a star in the chat. I don't know if
you knew about this hashtag. I'm up token daughter in
the house. Good job Dash. You know.

Speaker 3 (01:25:28):
That's my youngest starter that got me all started. Guys,
she's the one that needs to get all the credit
in the world for getting in the metal attack ting
because if it was at I wouldn't be sitting here
right now.

Speaker 1 (01:25:41):
You enjoyed there you go, we've enjoyed here and that
it's a whole family of.

Speaker 3 (01:25:50):
There she is.

Speaker 1 (01:25:51):
Yeah, I love it. Other one guy, You guys are
lending us your daughter, your daddy.

Speaker 3 (01:25:56):
We're really exactly you guys. Good.

Speaker 2 (01:25:58):
You got a cool dad.

Speaker 3 (01:26:05):
Good kids, good kids. I shouldn't call anymore. They're grown,
they're grown women now.

Speaker 1 (01:26:11):
But the daughter's dad loves more like they're just coming
through all that perfect. Hey, I saw this one come
in Detect South Dakota says, we find something that's possibly
worthy of a restoration, what's the single best thing we
can do after the find?

Speaker 3 (01:26:34):
Okay, so I sort of touched on this earlier. The
first thing you can do is leave it in the
condition that you dig it. Don't do anything to it, Okay,
you know, just put it in a bag with the
dirt and don't do anything extra to it. Don't try
to bend it back, don't try to clean it or
scrub it off to try to see stuff on it,

(01:26:55):
and buy it. Please do not if you know some
people have something that they'll clean off. And what they'll
do is they'll they're in between whether hey, do I
want to get this restored or do I not want
to get it restored, and they clean it off, which
is fine to if you're not going to have it restored.
And what they do is they're like, oh, you know what,

(01:27:16):
I don't think I'm going to get a restored, So
they put renaissance wax on it, or they put a
oil based material on that metal. So that's not bad.
Renaissance wax is a good thing for preserving relics that
you want to last a lifetime. You know, they're good.
They do what they Renaissance wax does its shop. It

(01:27:39):
permeates the metal, It gets down into the metal, and
it preserves it. The downfall to that is as a restorer,
you know that metal, you know, if I'm micro welding
or I'm soldering, or I'm welding to get things to
match up or to get things to go together properly,
anything that has an oil base on it or that's

(01:28:00):
permeating the metal, regardless of how much I try to
strip it down using different types of material, especially with
renaissance wax, it gets into it so much to where
it's very hard for me to have a successful adhesion
with a microworld or a weld of some sort. So

(01:28:21):
I recommend to everybody please, if you're even slightly considering
doing a restoration, do not add any oil or renaissance
wax to it or lacker of any sort. That somebody
reached out to me and wanted me to restore a
rel can they put fingernail polish on it to coat it?

(01:28:42):
And I was like, oh no, I can't, I can't,
And I unfortunately just had to turn somebody away just
today on a beautiful infantry eye button that I could
have easily restored and I probably could still easily restore,
but they put oil on it, And to me, that
just complicates things, especially with buttons that I don't like

(01:29:05):
doing too much, but it just complicates the process a
little bit more. And I'm at a point now to
where I sort of get an opportunity to pick and
choose what I'm repairing or restoring, and I have so
many restorations that I'm doing. I don't want to have
to take those extra steps if I don't have to,

(01:29:25):
if that makes any sense. And I don't mean to
sound difficult about things. It's just certain things or processes,
you know, are a little bit harder than others. So
don't put renaissance wax on it or any oil if
you're thinking about getting it done.

Speaker 1 (01:29:40):
Yeah, very cool.

Speaker 2 (01:29:44):
Yeah, before ahead, before we before we head out tonight.
What's the best way for people to get a hold
of you?

Speaker 1 (01:29:50):
JP?

Speaker 3 (01:29:51):
All right, yeah, no, no worries, So sorry. I didn't
give an opportunity for people to have too many more questions.
I talk a lot, I guess, so the best way
to get a hold of me is you know what
most people do is through Facebook Messenger. They message me
because it gives me an immediate thing to my phone.
And the reason why I like that it shows it

(01:30:12):
as it comes in, so I'm able to keep track.
Now there's a caveat to that. There's a downfall. I
get like five to ten requests a week, so if
you keep getting knocked down, you know what I mean.
But I'm able to see it and keep track of it,
and that's how I'll respond to you the quickest through
Facebook Messager. The second would be email me directly. I

(01:30:34):
also get my emails that go directly to my phone,
and I see that and I respond back. Typically, I
usually respond back within an hour or two. I like
to get a response back that quick, but there are
some times to where it's a couple hours that it
takes for me to get back to the emails. And
then the third that I don't use as much and

(01:30:54):
I don't post as much as I should would be Instagram.
You can get on Instagram, so you know, JP hunts
Relics through uh, you know, uh the email and then
through Facebook as JP hunts, and then also through Instagram.

Speaker 1 (01:31:12):
So if you happen to be listening on the replay
here on the audio portion of Relics Radio and uh,
you know you're kind of you don't use Facebook or
anything like that. You can also reach out to Tony
and I and we can definitely put you in touch
with JP. Uh if you're interested to go that way too.
We definitely welcome that. JP is a great guy and

(01:31:33):
we'd be happy to put you put you together with him,
uh if if that's if that's what you want to do,
We're always open to that kind of contact. JP. You've
been an amazing guest man. I knew you would be awesome.
We could probably go another three hours, I'm sure, because
there's there's.

Speaker 3 (01:31:49):
A lot out, especially when there's issus and like there's
so many things. There are little tips that I sort
of wanted to go over with people and let them
know and and get them an eye ideal of what
they should a little bit more in detail do or
not do. Just to give you guys a heads up.
So the Guintsberg relic show that's coming up in April,

(01:32:10):
I'm usually at all the Guttysburg relic shows, So if
you want to come to my table, you can see
me there at my table. Yeah, I sell some war relics.
I don't you know. I'm not there to sell stuff
that I've restored, but I'm there as someone that does
also sell relics. But I do have a portion of
my table that goes over a lot of their restoration work.
But I've decided this year that I was going to

(01:32:32):
put up a video. A lot of people have asked me,
are required to how the heck am I getting into
these buttons and repairing these buttons and getting these pushouts
out of these buttons. I'm thinking about putting up a
video actually I already have the video, but putting up

(01:32:52):
a little screen up at my table at the gains
per Real show to where it takes you step by
step on the process of what I do to actually
get a button pushed out the process, and I think
a lot of people will be surprised about how I
do it.

Speaker 1 (01:33:11):
You can do like I showed tonight, just those those
a little bit of you know photos, not a step
by step process. You put all that on a loop man.
People just stay up, stay at your booth and watch that. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:33:22):
Yeah, that's that was my thought process. And you know,
and and ultimately it's not to get to uh get
people to you know, have me restore more relics. Believe me,
I'm busy enough. But ultimately it's about uh meeting people
in a reround community. I just want people to come
up to the table and just meet people, meet new people,
meet new friends, make new friends, and have an opportunity

(01:33:44):
to get out there and enjoy history and uh get
to know people, because you know, that's what it's all about. So,
you know, to all the people out there that have
trusted me with their items and repairing their items, thank
you very much for trusting me with your cherished I
know how much that uh, how much of a big
decision that is, and I don't take that lightly. And

(01:34:07):
with every item that I work on, I put my
heart and soul into making sure I have a positive
outcome for them. So with that said, I wanted to
thank everybody out there that's trusting me with their items.
And if you decide that you want to move forward
and send your relics to me, thank you for considering me.
And then also thank you to you Ken and Tourney

(01:34:29):
four always putting together an outstanding show that everybody should
tune into every Wednesday, not Thursday Wednesday night.

Speaker 1 (01:34:37):
Yeah, thanks, you know, And that's why we and Tony
do this show does to connect and meet people like
minded people. And it's always interesting how what a what
a shared story a lot of us share about how
we got started and how it took us over and
all that kind of stuff and what we respect about
this hobby. And when you meet people like mindedness like that,

(01:34:59):
it's always because we do all share this very similar
story for sure. But that hey, thanks man, Like tim
Ildigger said, JP Part two coming soon, we definitely have
to have you back on because I got a lot more.

Speaker 3 (01:35:12):
Yeah, I got a lot more information out there, or next.

Speaker 1 (01:35:15):
Time, I'm bourbon with me next time, so I can.

Speaker 3 (01:35:19):
Yeah, part two, We're here for you.

Speaker 1 (01:35:21):
Love great last words, JP, and we're going to put
you in the green room and then Tony I will
Sarah goodbyes to you off the air. You okay with that?

Speaker 3 (01:35:29):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:35:29):
Okay? Last words? Let everyone know uh where we said
where they can find you. But do you have any
parting words for everybody?

Speaker 4 (01:35:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:35:37):
I mean no, I mean I think I've already said.
I'm just look, thank you for trusting me with your relics,
and if you decide that you want me to restore
your relics, thank you for considering me to be able
to do it. You know, I find it, uh very
I'm very humbling or humbled to be able to have
that opportunity to work on your relics. And uh, you know,

(01:35:58):
I want to thank the two of you for doing
what you do you and uh being involved in the
Row community where you are and uh, you know, I'll
just send it with that, you know, Oh, real quick,
If anybody wants to get some garb, I do have
some T shirts still available, So just a couple I'm
deciding to go to a green, a Hunter Green. So
I was blessed and I got I sold off a

(01:36:21):
lot of them and I only have a couple of
a couple of them left. So if anybody's interested in
T shirts, you can also message me on that as well.
So again, thank you guys for everything.

Speaker 1 (01:36:31):
Thank you. We'll see in just second. Man, I knew
that would be awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:36:38):
Just knocked out of the park man, And I'm glad.
I'm glad sim said something.

Speaker 1 (01:36:42):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:36:43):
We got to have him back on. You know, we
we talk about the shared duck that we have. I
think we just deleted maybe two things off of there.
We have just so many, so many things to talk
about and rabbit holes to go down, and just you know,
just just a great guy to talk with, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:36:58):
Gosh, yeah, that could have that could have gone so
many different directions, man, hardest restoration, right, yeah, all kinds
of all kinds of ways, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:37:08):
Yeah, I know I'm looking at the dock here, man.

Speaker 1 (01:37:11):
Just some good stuff. Yeah, So we'll have him on
again for sure. Absolutely great, great guy. But if you're
out there by the yeah Gettysburg Relic show, go on
by and see him look for his booth out there
and let them say hello, I know it. Who was
it that said? Detectig smile said he's near getting in
the in that close go by and meet meet JP.

(01:37:32):
That'd be awesome. What you got going on? Man?

Speaker 2 (01:37:35):
Huh? Just join me over at fifty two eighty adventures, YouTube, Instagram, Rumble,
what else?

Speaker 1 (01:37:41):
Facebook?

Speaker 2 (01:37:42):
Tons of stuff, tons of content social media. Just head
over there, uh, and then join me on Sunday nights
taking a little bit of a break for this home restoration,
but join me Sunday nights for are you smarter than
a relic hunter? See if you guys can can get
how many questions you can get right on that? So
appreciate all support, guys, And I just want to say
thanks again to.

Speaker 1 (01:38:02):
JP for that giveaway. That was Tony. I did have goosebumps.
That's pretty amazing. So look at Tim micro welding question mark. Yeah,
we could get into all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:38:11):
I know there's forty five minute question right there.

Speaker 1 (01:38:15):
All right, Bud, thanks everyone for joining us here for
Relex Radio. We've got some great announcements coming up regarding
Rush to the Rockies twenty twenty five here in Colorado.
May thirtieth through June. First, some good announcements coming on
that we're just trying to a dott the ice and
cross the t's before we let stuff out. But thanks

(01:38:35):
for a good show. I knew JP would be awesome.
If you guys want to check me out over at
Adventures in Dirt and all over the social media Adventures
in Dirt, you can find all the stuff I've put
out and I'd love to see you over there. But
have yourself a great weekend coming up, and if you
go dig stuff, good luck, make sure you tell us
about it. We always love hearing about the relics you're
finding out there. But good luck to everyone. Stay safe.

(01:38:57):
We'll see you next Wednesday.

Speaker 3 (01:39:02):
Thank you so much for listening to Relix Radio. We
will see you back here next week for another exciting guest.
Until then, get out and dig it all

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S8 E11 - Relic Restoration with JP Hunts Live in the Studio

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}S8 E11 - Relic Restoration with JP Hunts Live in the Studio