On private property for which I had permission…subsequent to photos I did poke the oxidised rust/dirt from the thicker curved stem without a bolt and it has an eye. Try your hand at identifying it. There was a logging way through, tram/track the vicinity way back when but this wasn’t near the estimated location of that, perhaps turfed uphill in annoyance? Or perhaps I’ve got it wrong and it’s an early bicycle part. Subsequent generations without rubbish collection or the energy to take stuff to the dump have left lots on the same hill, everything from tape measures in inches to sledgehammer heads to crunchier bar wrappers.
Congratulations. It’s a rare…wotsit.
I’d give it hell with a wirebrush and electrolysis and post resultant pics. It’s not horsey at this stage.
My first rare wotsit, fantastic. Found a detectorist across the road erring towards horsey wotsit. Interesting afternoon, also found a previously unseen retaining wall that the owner decided I ought to dig to length to be turned into a garden feature, a one pint milk token and a two cent piece and one spendable dollar along with nails galore. Nothing beats the wotsit.
Sorry, but I think this might be a broken half of an old bicycle brake pad arm
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No sorry needed. Googling 1940s bicycle manuals…That was the era it was first settled residentially,it’s where I will start looking for a curved brake pad. The shape is the hesitation.
The material is my next hesitation…Google seems to indicate very few bikes with brakes in the 1940s in NZ. It’s still possible.
I’ve looked at this against a restored Raleigh from the fifties and forties and the eye, hole, placement does not fit in that there’s not enough room for anything but a super thin tyre if it had a twin, and no mudguard, not Raleigh but bicycle isn’t totally off the table. No apparent cable hole in small curved arm as one might expect in a brake either and no ‘dugout’ slot as per modern brake pad arms. I’m back at wotsit.
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Dragon has it. Brake caliper.
The higlighted bit is the remains of the rubber pad backing plate.
The cable hole would have filled up with rust as it expanded when it corroded.
Could be any brand or design right up to present day.
That’s half the fun of detecting - trying to identify some mysterious blob. Sometimes they can surprise you. My most recent “Wotsit” turned out to be a ramrod tube off a musket.
Keep digging 