hi simon, the petrified wood could have been pyrited wood which will decay, its called pyrite decay, and tarnish metals and other bits in the surrounding area like the spoons and the coin :0)

Pyritised wood from the East coast. Tons of it at the Naze found in the London clay (about 54 million years ago). It is very hard to keep and usually will disintegrate as you have found out. Keep each piece separate in a very dry environment for best results. I have a beautiful piece about 5 x 1.5 inches next to me with the grain clearly visible and the bark still on so you can get lucky

How interesting. I love that feel of coming across old stuff stored away age ago, like refinding old friends.

I'm gonna guess the acid in the newspaper started a chain reaction in the box, deteriorated the petrified wood which, in turn, emitted mild tarnishing vapors. Newspaper never good for long term storage because it's almost always acidic. The effluvium on the pipe might be something that was already stuck in the stem when you found it now working it's way through the clay? As always, Simon, just wild guesses!! Fun post even if your most sedentary one ever! you must miss the active life on the foreshore.

The finds were great. The postcard was brilliant! You brighten every Sunday, Si. Thank you.

This one was like a lullaby, your voice is soothing. laughed Everytime you turned off for drilling. Inspiring.

I love your friend, nice of him to hand over that pipe. He literally looks like an actor, I just can’t put a name to him. No more putting treasure in a box and forgetting about it.

Thank you for showing us your treasures! So many awesome finds ❤️

It must be fantastic to rediscover finds you hadn’t seen in ages , love your videos so much Si best wishes and above all stay safe .

That was one of the most entertaining mudlark videos I've seen recently. I think a fair chunk of the enjoyment comes from your obvious excitement at refinding some of these wee treasures. I hope you've a few more such boxes stashed away!

Simon, you are a man of many talents. I enjoyed the "un-boxing" of your finds. It's like finding them all over again. I particularly liked your post card artwork. Looking forward to more finds. Please keep yourself safe.

Really nice video - loved the subliminal flashes of “driller-killers” 😂. Your postcard is fab 👍

I believe "1686" is the service number of a soldier. (I found several of spoons like this one in Flanders fields).

The fertility charm looks like a miniature Nigerian Benin bronze. There used to be an expert in bronzes at Hornimans Museum SE26, that I used to seek advice from. It does look old, and would have been cast in sand ! 🌍🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🌍

Gypsum and iron pyrite is commonly associated with fossils, these have lots of sulphates and sulphides which will tarnish silver and erode clays. Fossils should be stored apart from everything else. And no newspaper for good stuff, ever.

3:51 It's heart shaped!

It's like watching you mudlark, as your getting excited sifting through your tub! Yes it's been a (slow) corrosive reaction, that stuff on the pipe, is the pipe- something has made the clay bubble up- it almost looks acidic. That sword handle is something else! Its beautiful ❤

Excellent video once again. Also don’t ever worry about the background noise, I’d watch your vids no matter what. The “D” monogrammed spoon is my absolute favourite.

Thank you for sharing your treasures with us Si, the sight of some things can evoke old memories indeed. I first started school in 1961 and at the time we still used nib pens and ink wells. The body of the pens had a tubular cavity in them to hold a reserve of ink and we used a variety of nibs depending upon the specified style of writing referred to as a 'font' today. We had to cover a small hole on the body of the pens we used with our finger to retain the ink once it was in the chamber. During 'calligraphy' classes we had to learn how to regulate the flow of ink from the reservoir in the pen using the aforementioned finger. We used to have cloth 'busy bags' sewed by our mothers which hung in the aisles between desks from hooks under the edge of our desk-tops. The lad I shared a desk with was a friend but also a bit of a 'wild child' who had a bad habit of running into the classroom despite such behaviour being strictly forbidden. One day the teacher became so sick of reprimanding him that she angrily told him to "go out of the room and enter in the approved manner". He promptly spun around and sprinted for the door at which time the nib of a pen protruding from a busy bag deeply slashed his leg inflicting a cut which from memory required about six stitches. So I suppose you could say that in some cases "a pen can quite literally be, at least as mighty as a sword". Sadly my former friend never mended his reckless ways and as a direct consequence was tragically killed in an earthmoving accident on a property he owned a few years ago now.

My 'gone too soon' sister in law used to have a windchime on her back porch made out of old metal spoons. Yours made me think of her.

Tearing up laughing at the interruptions 😂

that sweetheart ring is lovely, there'll be a great story behind something like that

Hi Si, so the mystery of the pipe corrosion is simply, salt the river has a fairly high salt content so any water left in the stem or in the pipe itself will leach out over time like that

I remember using similar pen nibs at school. They used to have to last a long time. They did tend to cross I remember

Watching from the US has helped pass the time staying at home! Thanks so much for sharing your treasures with all of us!!

Even refinding finds is exciting! I’ve been binging all your videos since I found you a couple weeks ago. Thanks for giving me something interesting to watch while I’m stuck in the house.

I don’t know nuth’n about nuth’n but you seem to be a true gentleman with enthusiasm for your hobby. Please stay awesome and hopefully soon the mud lovers can get back out on the foreshore.

I remember learning to write with a fountain pen 🖋 that had a nib like that. What a great treasure box. Have you thought to make yourself some display boxes with perspex tops that you can stack. Then if you are looking for a pipe they will all be together. You are a handy guy and I’m sure you know somewhere to source a wooden pallet to make the sides (cut down to say 2 inches high) and use heavy cardboard covered in velvet ( from op shops) for the base. If Perspex is too expensive just clear plastic to keep out dust. To stop you sword handle deteriorating any more try using a piece of plastic drink bottle and wrap it around the tilt then using the hottest setting on a hair dryer shrink it around the handle. It might stop oxidation for a while.

Best channel on KZfaq and most interesting by far stay safe si-finds 👌😁

The little lead item is shaped like an anvil but on one side it had a meal of loaves and fishes and on the other a foot, I think it’s a pilgrim badge or religious pendant.

I enjoyed this video very much , I would like to see another one of some of your bits and pieces and odd finds . Maybe have them in a box as well and show a piece at a time ,you could talk about find . Basically the same as this one . You are the best .

You neighbor is a gift that keeps on giving! Loved the treasure box!!!

You ought to have tested your bronze age axe's effectiveness on your diy neighbour!

Who knew you could mudlark out of a chocolate box - brilliant

watching your older videos & this was one of your most interesting. your a good artist too - love how u used the old type to embellish your postcard drawing.

Thank you for sharing the box that kept giving. Si Finds never ending creativity. Our luck.

WOW 🤩 It IS like Christmas Day! Exciting to find your lost Treasure box 📦.. FANTASTIC! From..A to Zed. Thank you for a great adventure & incredible dig! ps. No worries about neighbors in background. It’s nice to hear ‘normal’ sounds again..

Love this channel so interesting what you can find

Those flashes of chain sawing stills during your video are hilarious.

Very interesting. In Scotland you can find pyrope garnets in Ruby Bay, Elie. They’re called “Elie Rubies”. Best time to go beachcombing is March and April after the winter storms

The plant on the first pipe, looks not much like grapes to me, more like hop.

Heard a green woodpecker. ..

Beautiful pen, stamp and ink drawing.

You are simply incredible love you Box of finds and I do so enjoy followin you and your Mud Lovin Friends!!!

That little disc with the hole is a pastry cutting wheel.

Best Larker in London... 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇬🇧👍😎

Your enthusiasm is addictive.

If nobody has said it yet then the petrified wood would most likely have been oak, oak reacts with metal and turns black, as a cabinet maker I have used this reaction to blacken Oak with wire wool and acid it also sends the wire wool black .

If you wish to wrap items up again, you can easily purchase acid-free tissue paper.

The sword handle is an amazing piece of art. I would have it stabilized and display it. Would be a shame to lose it.

Omg...i think i was as excited as you si...wrapped in paper...what is it gonna be....please stay safe...be glad when its over.....xxxx

Just watched this tonight…February 2023! Great video Si, thanks!

Wonderful stuff Si. That box was quite a time capsule. I spotted the Byzantine coin. The symbol on it is called the 'chi-rho'. Which is a monogram made up of the first two Greek letters of Christ's name - X and P. Your ornate pipe with the elaborate coat of arms could have a Catholic connection. The coat of arms includes the crossed keys of St Peter - the symbol of The Vatican. Finally that little brass African fertility lady; I've got exactly the same one. I bought it years ago at a craft fair here in Australia. Cheers from Oz.

Silver tarnishes to black....you can polish them back up though! Lovely tub of memories....or lack of! Lol Really enjoyed it (- :

Thanks for this! I'm working from home with the Colorado stay at home orders. I enjoyed this! A neighbor started up a leaf blower or something. I had to close my windows. (I'm taking a break from work, not surfing on the job, don't worry.) Stay safe, be well, thanks again!

Natural colour of Silver when Oxidized it goes Black. Eg. Black & White Photo Graphic process. Nice Mystery Box finds, love that when you Re Find something u had Forgot about..! Great Video as Always. Stay well, stay safe..! Kim in Oz.😎

Fun and interesting box reveal! Nice that you found some finds you thought "lost!" I wouldn't think newspaper is the best thing to wrap your treasures in - too acidic. As to petrified wood: it is formed when the organic remains have been replaced by minerals, creating an actual stone, often a type of quartz. Did you mean carbonized wood?

i bet the foreshores will be packed when the quarantine is lifted in London

Found your site today...enjoyed it so much I immediately subscribed! I can't wait to see more! Thank you.

What a great box of re-finds!!!! That giant pipe is hilarious! I thought I would die laughing at the pictures when your neighbor was drilling or sawing or whatever! Stay in and stay safe! Cheers!

So , around the 6 min mark you show a pipe bowl with what looks like “Ich dien” on it , a Welsh Prince of Wales motto although I believe it’s German words meaning “I Serve”

Yay, you posted a video, it’s a good day, thanks for sharing

Wow🤩 that was really fun. Real treasures 😍 I've moved a lot and unpacking lost boxes always feels like Christmas 😊Thanks for sharing

Hi Si! We love your box of treasure - some amazing finds! We also love your pictorial bleeps, lol! Stay safe and well, Gail & Alex xx

I think you are correct, its fossilized poo. They are called Coprolites

AWESOME FINDS MAN I WISH WE HAD THE CLAY PIPES HERE LIKE YOU GUYS HAVE THERE IN LONDON i never seen one till this channel

Si! That was awesome! Definitely a time capsule! With out the digging! Loved it! Kelly/Indiana

Glad you found your missing items. What a great artist you are. Thanks for sharing.

I wonder if the paper might have had some acidic quality?

I grew up with petrified wood around my family's ranch. I have never witness nor heard of true petrified wood falling apart nor causing damage like that. And certainly in that short length of time. Not when your petrified poo did not.

Lovely treasures...The impromptu Thames drawing at the end was awesome...You are mighty talented

I think the snake was a striker for the flint to hit in an old musket... When you said latch it dawned on me I'd seen that shape before. Fun video. Thanks.

The fossil "poo" looks like a mudfossil. I have a collection of similar sized fossils, but, mine are composed of iron pyrites, are are distinctly once "flesh & blood" living creatures. ???

Yeah I think it's a turd

The very ornately carved bowl is magnificent! 😊🇨🇦

a guided tour thru Si's Si-finds. cool. thanks for introducing your Patreon page too. lots more to see & partake, as we used to say in Ontario. we have 🚧 construction too locally ! I'll send up some photos to my KZfaq page, and any finds of note

How fun! Don’t rush us! I’m having a great time looking at these treasures!

I love your channel! From a southern California ! You have a treasure trove of History!!!

The handle of a sword and head of an axe took my breath away! What remarkable finds. Thanks to the education I have received from watching KZfaq I correctly guessed the piece of wig curler. Great vlog.

That was so cool going through your box with you!!😍😍

This video was funny. Class with the cuts 😂😂🙌🏼

Fabulous! My favourite find was the lucky boot. Totally gorgeous! Cheers from DownUnder.

There could have been hidden moisture in the wood and I know that moisture will leach out calcium from plaster or clay objects. You can scrape it off but you scrape to much and there will be a hole. I would just leave it like that as a reminder to keep every thing dry. Silver after cleaning and dried really dry can be put in zip lock bag and you will not have to clean again. Susann

I don't know if it's just me but I actually like how black those spoons are take care stay safe and thanks for inspiration for future projects and days 👌✍️

Fun looking at the finds. And terrific drawing on the postcard!

An early Christmas! Every time I have ever moved I’ve ended up opening boxes long after settling and feeling the excitement of finding something I had forgotten I’d had! Just like Christmas!

Silver usually turns black, The reason why the box had all the issues was that it contained a whole array of different types of metals now that with slight residue of sea water was enough to cause a galvanic reaction within the metals hence why the wood turned to dust plus the appearance of burning etc. Lucky really as this does on the rare occasion cause a fire!

Great ! “Life is like a box of chocolates ..” how true ! What a great re-discovery :) enjoyed the intermittent drill pix :)

My weekend has consisted of binge watching your videos! I have always loved old things with history and character. Hugs from Miami! New subscriber here.

Simon, love to hear your musings...you're such a sweetie! Great video, stay safe 💋

Thank you for showing your art with the pen nib! I have found two nibs on the beach this past year and I actually ordered a fountain pen, thinking that I could just switch out the nib to use my found ones lol I don’t know why I haven’t just tried them on their own by dipping them in ink 😂🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️ that’s my learn something new for the day! Lol now if you could discover a way to play fragments of vinyl records, you’ll have solved both of my beach-find dilemmas 😉😂 great video as usual!!

great video Si. You're a talented artist! Love watching what you find. We don't have history like that here in Canada.

I PRAY, you will do more drawings and put them up for sale... ☺ YOU fascinate me with AAALL your talents ! 😍 when you refurbished the OLD PUB table, how do you know it was from a pub ? Is there a certain design they used for pubs ? I'm just curious... 😁 You guys crack me up... ☺ When we find treasures in America, WE get EXCITED over things from the eighteen hundreds or early nineteen hundreds... There you guys are finding things clear back to fifteen hundreds... YOU are SOOO BLESSED !!! ☺❤☺OLD NOTTS. LADY, USA

Wow nice little drawing Simon! Cool box of stuff! It's wonderful finding things you thought were lost. I enjoy the heck out of your videos, everything about them. Hope you get back to mudlarking soon!

34"02 Egyption . I loved watching you empty out your goodie box. I have a room full that needs just that and organized from all my finds. Love all of your videos. Susann

You are so funny and talented, you make me laugh and admire your work at the same time. I just started watching these mudlarking videos and I am hooked. This is one of my favorites so far, love the guys with the chain saws. The Christmas gift opening in the red candy box, lol, I've done the same thing put something in a box to discover later it had a toxic effect on other things in the box. The Byzantine coin was a terrific find. Since I was 18 back in my hippie-dippie days 1969, I have moved 40+ times and am now at 71 an expert on moving from place to place and could give lessons on it. This old body can hardly move herself anymore and it saddens me not to be out and about searching for finds, so I will live vicariously through you, Nicola, all your buddies, and others. God bless you all, keep on keeping on.

We go to the dollar store here in the US to buy just plain tissue paper that's white and wrap up things like metals, plates, glass, ornaments, ect and store in boxes . You can go a step further and get acid free paper that won't react with your relics.

Lovely way to pass lockdown lunch! Ty. The fossilised poo or coprolite was of interest as several years ago whilst researching my other half's family tree I discovered that some of his ancestors in Cambridge were listed as coprolite diggers on the census. I hadn't a clue so did some extensive research. Apparently it was a huge industry in the mid to late 1800s and it was used as fertiliser. Someone called John Bennet Lawes discovered it as a super fertiliser which was needed to grow huge amounts of food because of the recent Napoleonic War. The digging progressed into parts of Essex. Diggers earned 3 times the amount of money than ordinary farm labourers because it was quite backbreaking hazardous work. Lawes become one of the richest men in that part of England all because of dinosaur poo. Proving that old adage ''where there's muck there's brass''

Feels like Christmas finding a long lost box of goodies eh? LOL The four pence silver coin is also known as a Groat. Nice!

l love watching your videos, learning about the history from the Thames, seeing the great finds, the lucky box was so enlightening. l find your sense of humour is quite boy like, makes me think of my brothers. take care... I'm playing the catch up game and am watching videos from the past. I'm entertained all day long.