Stone Ball for comments

[kronckew]

What is its backstory? Where did you get it, what were you told about it by the vendor, where are you now? Can you tell what kind of rock it is made from? Provenance is everything.



C=πD (or 2πr), Pi (π) =3.141592654... so



13=3.14159 D
D=13/3,14159=4.138 inches.


I can buy stone spheres made as modern decorative garden ornaments in various sizes. Caveat Emptor.

[fernando]

Yes, provenance is the basics with these things; providing such (provenance) is not fabricated. Anyone can tell you that the specimen was brought out by a diver when collecting stuff from a wreck ... or the like.
The ball posted, with its circa 4" diameter, should weigh about, say, 3 pounds and, if it were an artillery item, would fit in a XIV-XVI century small bombard, or a falcon. I guess too small for catapults, though... like those in Sant'Angelo.
Also i realize that, their construction being too regular, doesn't help supporting their genuinity .

.

[TheCollector]

Thanks for the replies , the back story is that it was found by myself in storage after my mother's passing , anyone else in the family who may have known about it has also passed away some years ago , ive collected militaria for 35 yrs and this definitely caught my attention when I seen it .

[TheCollector]

Originally Posted by fernando

Yes, provenance is the basics with these things; providing such (provenance) is not fabricated. Anyone can tell you that the specimen was brought out by a diver when collecting stuff from a wreck ... or the like.
The ball posted, with its circa 4" diameter, should weigh about, say, 3 pounds and, if it were an artillery item, would fit in a XIV-XVI century small bombard, or a falcon. I guess too small for catapults, though... like those in Sant'Angelo.
Also i realize that, their construction being too regular, doesn't help supporting their genuinity .

.

Thanks , great information indeed , one concern I had is that it might be a Mill ball , but I think with those the uniform wear is quite different from the hand tooling marks seen on my ball .

It's located in Australia, I know that a few family members did travel the world a few times , but that's pure speculation if it originated overseas

[fernando]

Mill (grinding) balls are iron. That's what i feared when i gathered by iron ammo.

.

[kronckew]

Old style windmill water pumps used in remote prairie or outback locations for livestock, etc, generally had a speed governor that uses heavy iron balls as part of the mechanism. Some get sold as cannon balls.

[fernando]

Those could be easily excluded by the initiated, as they leave visible marks of their suspension rings.

[Interested Party]

Originally Posted by fernando

Mill (grinding) balls are iron. That's what i feared when i gathered by iron ammo.

I recently found these in a friend's yard. I remembered reading a thread about items that could be mis marketed as cannon balls. I live in an area that had many precious metal ore mines at one time. I thought a picture might be appreciated. The measurements are in inches, my apologies to my metric friends. Also attached is a short reference from everyone's favorite source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_mill