So in my adolescence, I lived pretty much on the Ohio River. I lived roughly 10 miles upriver from Cincinnati, on the Ohio side. One of the gifts I got when I was in grade school from my parents was a metal detector, which I used all the time. In my very own back yard, I found these very interesting and what appears to be relatively old artifacts. I was just wondering if any of you historians out there, or even just Native American/Ohio River Valley history buffs could tell me a bit about what I found. My guess is maybe they could be from the 18th-19th century, not sure who'd they belong to, though. They are made of iron. The shears I feel could potentially be European, but they were found 25 ft from each other, and about the same depth. Anyways, any potential information about them would be great. Thanks! The link to the picture: http://imgur.com/a/ZFjYY
The tomahawk looks more to be a carpenter's hatchet, with a head to drive nails. It looks pretty light , could be from what was called a "Gent's " tool kit, which had lighter tools for a home handyman to do simple jobs. Might be from the mid 1800's, maybe even 20th c. If it was much earlier, it would be wrought iron, and a strip of steel would be laid in to make a hard cutting edge. With corrosion that strip of steel would show- and from what I can see in the small photo of the pattern of corrosion, the whole head here looks like it's steel, which would be typical later. If you pickle the rust off with an acid, and get a kind of fibrous-look to the metal, and that strip of steel appears, I would be wrong.
( note- the listing of the hatchet in the link calls it a broad hatchet, but it's not!)
One of the items are old sheep shears.