Have a read of the article below it will explain just how simple this book is, you will never lose a find spot or forget the time you were out in the fields…
Shown on the left is the Wir-O bound Artefact Journal & Field Diary, which was the original binding, but we have now chosen to revert back to the white plastic spiral bound book (-shown below -) which people seem to prefer as we have now re-ordered the workbooks without running out of this time, it still has the same content, two hundred internal pages, consisting of the standard black & white main pages, where you can record your recovered artefacts, with an easy-to-use and easy to create, Ref.-No. and a C.T.C.-No. with other simple entries like which metal detector, you were using, coil, battery life, location, weather, programs, settings, etc…
i suggest that any “previous volume of the AJFD” is popped into the “Location Index-AJFD Ref.No” put this at the very end of any “Location Index-AJFD Ref.No” that you use, (or if you leave that blank still pop the volume number into this space) with hyphens, if as an example volume 2 then use – “2”
This enables you to keep track of the items from the field to the storage area, & once in the storage area it is a simple task to back-track the artefact or coin to the day, date, and field or area it was discovered again, these Artefact and Diary pages are backed up with their different coloured pages for various other different tasks…
Out of the 200 internal pages in the Artefact Journal & Field Diary, the book has eighty-four “double-dedicated dig pages” with a further 10 Single Page Artefact Journal & Field Diary listings, plus a further six “single artefact pages” each containing 30 artefact listings per page that amount to an additional 180 Artefact Listings which can be entered, with location and site specifics as a stand-alone entry or connected to the Artefact Journal & Field Diary’s dig pages… By combining the digs, it is possible to enter well over two hundred & fifty different digs, artefacts & diary entries, without losing track of any hunt, the pages have ample space to create a small drawing, plenty of writing space for a diary entry and further spaces on the same page to jot down notes…
Artefact Journal & Field Diary…
Artefact Journal & Field Diary… £16.95p
The Artefact Journal & Field Diary will be sent by second-class postage via Royal Mail, & will require a signature…
Artefact Journal & Field Diary is not only a personal Diary, but a Journal to record your finds from that day’s hunt…
This book is formatted for you to record your own metal detecting journey in a storybook format, & only you as the author can make it unique; no one else can…
Artefact Journal & Field Diary…
Let me introduce you to the future of recording your finds, along with the sights and sounds you encounter along the way…
And the beauty of all of this, it can take less than five minutes to complete when you get home…
This Artefact Journal & Field Diary is a two-page recording system, as you open the book to your first dig page, you will see that the Artefact Journal is placed on your left-hand side, whilst the Field Diary is on the right-hand side, with everything in view and placed in order ready for you to enter the details for that particular day’s hunt…
This Artefact Journal and Field Diary, can be a basic record system, which in itself is simple or you can incorporate some or all of the features withing this book, to keep track of your movements, fields, rallies, and where abouts you store your finds, with every part of the book linked back to the find spot, storage, day and date etc…
The Artefact Journal & Field Diary starts off with a bold colour, as the first thing you will notice is that its bright Green, so hopefully it will stand out on your desk or work station, & always be at hand…
So, what is the Artefact Journal & Field Diary, & what does it do ? Put quite simply, you record your finds… & If you want, enter a date, maybe you can keep a diary or make notes of your day out in the field, it has plenty of room for that as well, it is as simple as that…
Knowledge is the key factor to any success & should you wish to bolster that knowledge, then this book encompasses everything within its pages to expand, create, & utilise a comprehensive database, which is simple to create, maintain & add to, allowing in the months & years to come to create a reflective history at your fingertips…
Apart from the Artefact Journal, the other part of this book is a field diary, although it’s given name is a field diary, it is a pretender to the name, as it stays at home and does not sit neatly in your pocket or field bag… The field diary itself follows on from an illustrates past, field diaries are an important workbook in their own right, scientists & natural historians alike leave their field diaries to museums for further study by the next generation of students… Before this enlightened world we live in i suppose in a way the Field Diary or any Diary was once upon a time the Blog of the day, recording the happenings and points of interest, all be it a lot more slowly than a push of the button, and without the followers…
J
ust like people all field diaries are unique, & as such the challenge here is to do anything you believe will bring your book alive, don’t be afraid to scribble notes down, do a small painting, coloured drawing, line drawing the list is endless, like any diary it is a personal account of the events that happened on that particular day, who you were with, saw, spoke to & literarily anything that you think should be wrote down, you will find that some days you write hardly anything down, whilst other days you will run out of paper, this is a work book, so don’t be afraid to use the margins, and every available space, it is your own personal book so make it your own way…
Coin / Artefact Tickets…
Before we go to much further, I want to touch on an integral part of this book, when you record anything you have found, you will need something to write the reference down on, with coins and artefacts these are readily available, from either a well-known auction site or specialist dealers, all I will say here is watch out, some purpose made tags are very good value, but be aware of the postage, it can & very often does exceed the cost of the item you are buying, you can make your own, but for the cost go buy some already made as the coin tickets and artefact tags are acid free, F.S.C. & come in various sizes, don’t forget your ticket should stay with the identified item for the duration of its life, why ? Coin tickets from the 1700s and 1800s are as collectable as the coins, but the most important thing here is that they provide both coin and artefact provenance…
The Artefact Journal & Field Diary…
Let’s start at the beginning of the book, we all know it’s green, so let’s turn over the front cover page. You will see on the inside cover is your personal entry, along with the volume number, & the previous volume number, (-this is relevant if you are using more than one book, or this is the next volume-) a place to enter the date this book started & below that when the book was completed, with a place to jot down your local F.L.O.’s name below the completion date. Still, as the F.L.O. change regular you might want to either write it in pencil, or leave enough room to insert another name beside the outgoing F.L.O. whilst the P.A.S. telephone number is situated underneath, followed by a short welcome note from us at the bottom of the page…
On the opposite page is a handy contact page, with the relevant entries for you fill out, where the phone entries are situated, there is enough space for any social media notes to be included as well, this page is handy for landowners, farmers, dig organisers etc… to be enter, leaving out any guesswork that you might have abbreviated on your phone…
Turning the contact page over we come to the first entry of ninety-nine dig pages of the Artefact Journal & Field Diary
Artefact Journal… When you open your book to the first dig page, the Artefact section is situated on the left, & is the first part of this two-page entry section;
Recording your finds could not be simpler, you might not want to archive your finds, but only to write down the artefacts you have found on any given day, whilst others might want to utilize this simple three-part system, allowing you to record your finds, with day, date, which detector etc… all at your fingertips, to make an entry you simply write down your finds, you don’t need to go into reams of data, you might simply want to put in livery button, or button with a line, blank coin, silver hammered etc-etc… identification comes later, but not here… try to write everything you find down, I don’t mean a blow-by-blow account, of the amount of cans you find, enter them here though, simply as numerous cans, gun caps, lead, silver foil coke etc… it is surprising how varied year on year, the finds are, sometimes the field in question is non-productive whilst other years there is an abundance of finds…
In the artefact section there is ample room, if you want to write down the G.P.S. ref…, the six or eight figure OS reference, or even the “what3word” ref…
This section below is only important if you file, store, collect or display your finds, otherwise you just need the reference sequence on your tag, this CTC sequence of figures is as important as the Ref Number if you store your items, as this is the route to the storage area from the dig page…
CTC… the second most important reference to enter correctly is this second of the three-part system, & itself is another three-part section, but these three parts stay together, and each of these need a number, letter, symbol, or a combination of all three, but keep the combination small, it is prudent to use a pencil, rather than a pen, until you are a hundred percent certain where the artefact is going to stay…
The first “C” stands for cabinet; it could be a coin cabinet, artefact cabinet or something else you keep your collection in, even plastic boxes come under this heading
“T” stands for the “tray” the artefact or coin is kept in, if there is no tray, but “let’s say” a shelf then I suggest numbering that shelf…
The last “C” stands for “cell” a little pocket in the tray for the coin or artefact to rest in… if it is loose & on display in a cabinet, for example then you may want to omit any data, or simple, put a letter to identify the piece, which can be wrote on the ticket, if there are shelves to your display cabinet then just put the shelf number down, remember how important this is, as a reminder, when reading from the Artefact Journal & Field Diary, this is how you find where the coin or artefact has been stored…
Shown below is an example of a livery button that was found, it has gone into – Cabinet 4 – Tray 1 – Cell &
Artefact Journal
|
Artefact |
C.T.C. |
Ref. No. |
Artefact |
C.T.C. |
Ref. No. |
|
Blank disc coin |
—— |
——- |
|||
|
Livery Button |
4.1.& |
2.3.2.R |
|||
|
Love token silver |
I.8.@ |
2.3.3.R |
|||
|
Buckle Frame |
3.1.$ |
2.3.4.R |
|||
Reference Number… when you come to this, it is the most important part of keeping a record, and will need entering correctly, because this is your route back from the storage area to the correct Artefact Journal & Field Diary, as long as the coin tickets or tags stay with the Artefact, then everything is traceable back to its origin…
This reference sequence has been done in an order that’s been proven to work, as you are led straight back to the required book, where you can turn to the appropriate dig page, and find the given artefact number on that page, you will also see the field number beside that, this eliminates any of the guesswork, of which number is which…
The first part of any of the reference’s is the number of the book, you must enter the book number, for illustration purpose this is book two, so the numerical 2. gets entered…
At the bottom of the artefact page & the diary page there is a dig number, not a page number, this dig number is writing on both artefact and diary pages, & is an important part of your record, the example shown here shows it is dig number three, so the numerical 3 gets entered after the book number… (2.3.)
This is followed by the artefact number, after you enter an artefact into this section, you simply write in descending order the number which the artefact was wrote up as, in this case, it was the second artefact so was given the number 2 (2.3.2.) that is it, you now have a reference number, which will stay with that artefact, creating a traceable link back to your book…
if you cannot remember what was found first, second or last, I don’t think it matters in plough soil or pasture, but for something special you will remember where the artefact came up from, so that won’t be an issue…
Even when you start to get into double figures, the numbers don’t get overly long, & are easily manageable on the tickets & with every new dig the numbers start again, so they stay relatively short…
Field Numbers… For this final part of the reference, it can be a number or a letter, or a combination of both letter and number, use these field numbers or letters on single fields or if you tend to wander over two or three fields sometimes, then this helps to keep track of what came up & from where…
This field number is totally unnecessary to include on the coin / artefact ticket, & is totally irrelevant to tracking an item back to the book, as when you track an item back to the book, the last part of the reference I.E., the field number will be there, it only needs to be wrote in the book because the book contains all the relevant field information, & will hold the answer to which field it was found in… you don’t need to have an estate map to number fields, an ordnance survey map of 1.25 will be sufficient, as you will know where you are allowed to detect, & this way, once wrote on the map it is an excellent reminder of the numbers you have given to the fields…
please note each number is separated by a dash, or a dot, so the reference number for this button reads, 2.3.2.
Date… putting the date on the end of the ref number is totally unnecessary, it is already written on the page, it just crams everything in, & also restrict the amount of space on your ticket, which then becomes disjointed, instead when you come to write your coin or artefact ticket with the ref. I suggest you put the date across the bottom or to the side of the ticket, and in a different coloured ink, with the reference above the date & the C.T.C. above that, but leave enough space above that for your ID Book ref…
On the reverse of the coin ticket the best order from the bottom to the top, is (-date-) Ref; number, C.T.C & ID Book ref; number…
By getting into the habit of writing your coin / artefact tickets in sequential order everything becomes easy to read, and not disjointed…
Field Diary… Opposite the artefact page is your field diary, in this section of the book we have strayed away from the traditional field diary & made it more relevant to Metal Detecting, yet allowing enough space to put your own unique touch to the book, on this page we have tried to cover everything that is relevant to metal detecting today, but with a fast-evolving market it is sometimes difficult to keep up, & areas of the book that is relevant to some detectorists, will not be too others, but there is enough space to write notes, or to keep a proper diary related to your day out in the field…
Shown here is the top part of the page for the field diary, with a lot being self-explanatory which I will skip over…
The camera / video ref-no; is useful tool, as it links the book to when the days recording or photos was uploaded, you can upload the files to a particular date, then change the file name for the pictures or video within your computer’s library, to include the Artefact Journal Volume Number – Dig Page & Farm Name, or a relevant name… by entering this particular short Reference Number into the book, it allows you to enter that ref. no. into the computers search engine, at any time in the future where it should take you straight to that particular file, saving the day & date for the future, a farm name or relevant name is to act a reminder when scanning through the photos, and you have the Artefact Journal & Field Diary’s ref number to go back and see what was happening on that day…
Previous AJFD Book Number; for illustration purpose, the field we are talking about here is field R, and you detected on last year, & entered into your first Artefact Journal & Field Diary, as dig no. 89…
As an example; you have been out detecting on the exact same field again this year…
When you get to this section, find the last time you entered the details, you then take the book number, then the dig number, and for clarification the field number… you enter this sequence into the section marked Previous AJFD 1-89-R
By using this section, it does not matter how many times you have detected on any particular field, because by recording the last time you detected this field, you start to create a paper trail backwards, which will over time give you one more piece of the jigsaw, creating an ever-expanding picture, at what the field has given up previously…
when you get to your second volume of the Artefact Journal & Field Diary, & it is your first time back on this field with this new book, simply enter the old book number, in this case book number one, and dig number of the last visit, which was dig eighty nine, 1-89-R, which translate into book 1 & can be found on dig page 89 (R) that’s the only time the ref to the first book needs to be mentioned in book two, as you move forward, again field numbers are best to be put down, as a cross ref to an area…
|
Day & Date 23.9.21 Thursday |
Time Out… 7.45 |
Time on Site… 8.20 |
|
Camera / Video Ref-No Hayeswood 1-175-230921 |
Previous AJFD Book-No 1 – 89 – R |
|
|
Location… Hayeswood Farm… |
Weather… cool, cloudy, threatened to rain all day but stayed away |
|
At the bottom of the Field Diary page, you will find more self-explanatory sections, how many you use is your choice, if your detector relies on being plugged in tick the box, and count the battery hours, field note can for example be used for a programmes name, instead of the settings, if you changed settings half way through or it is handy for anything that can be wrote in brief…
|
Time off Site 4.40 |
Time Home 5.45 |
Detector Used… T2 |
|||||||||||||
|
Metal Detector Battery Hours – 12 + 8½ = 20½ |
Pin Pointer Battery Hours – 7 + 8½ = 15½ |
Coil Used… Standard |
|||||||||||||
|
Continued from Page Number |
Detector Settings
|
||||||||||||||
|
New Battery |
New Battery |
Field Numbers
|
|||||||||||||
|
Detector / Coil Charged |
Headphones Charged |
||||||||||||||
|
Dig Field Note Strange that this large field will have three crops on this year, side by side |
|||||||||||||||
|
Ground Condition. Bit fluffy, good to detect on, ploughed, & rolled flat yesterday, done the top end also, but still scrubby oats due to the weather, soft ground but hard digging after eight inches or so |
|||||||||||||||
Now if like me, and hundreds of others, you pop out for a quick hunt of an hour or so, you will not want to use up a page for that hunt, but it should be recorded, so, I believe this is the best method to avoid having to waste pages on a short and often non-productive hunt, shown here is a method to record short hunts, you will see that I have entered five quite short hunts during that particular week, with a five hour hunt entered on the Saturday, on three of those hunts all that turned up were buttons, and scrap, and this is how I entered them in the journal section, broken buttons, can, foil & other scrap…
But whether this was a non-productive search or not, to conform with the numbers remaining equal, you have to give every hunt a ref, so in book number two, this was dig number 43 with the first hunt ref of 2.43.1, but with nothing to show the CTC remains without being entered…
For the second hunt, on the same page, it then follows on with the book number two (-2-) but with an added missive to distingué between each dig, use the alphabet for this as the letters get into the greater numbers before reaching double figures, so dig two on the same page reads (-2A-) …
dig number is forty-three (-2A.43-)
and even though it was only scrap that was found the artefact number should be recorded as 2 (-2A.43.2-)
with the subsequent digs being given an ascending order of the alphabet and artefact numbers…
does it matter that it is dig forty-three, when it should read dig forty-four or higher, I don’t think so, plus how would this fit onto the ref, (2.43-44.2. maybe, I think this would be slightly more long winded, but it is a choice, with the next full hunt numbered higher than the previous hunt) if you find an item during a short hunt, that is what matters, it can be traced back, by any artefact or dig back to its origins, by inserting a letter, it instantly shows it was a search amongst a serious of short or non-productive hunts, sometimes you might want to include two full digs per page, then that’s another viable option, as for the battery usage, location, machine etc… use the diary as to record hours, and other data, with the last hunt use the end figure to be entered into allocated spots… most options are available simply by using the diary page, as an extension…
Artefact Journal & Field Diary…
This Artefact Journal & Field Diary is a two-page recording system, as you open the book to your first dig page, you will see that the Artefact Journal is placed on your left-hand side, whilst the Field Diary is on the right-hand side, with everything in view and placed in order ready for you to enter the details for that particular day’s hunt…
This Artefact Journal and Field Diary, can be a basic record system, which in itself is simple or you can incorporate some or all of the features withing this book, to keep track of your movements, fields, rallies, and where abouts you store your finds, with every part of the book linked back to the find spot, storage, day and date etc…
This Artefact Journal & Field Diary, starts off with a bold colour, as the first thing you will notice, is that its bright green, so hopefully it will stand out on your desk or work station, and always be at hand…
So, what is the Artefact Journal & Field Diary, & what does it do, put quite simply, you record your finds…
& If you want, enter a date, maybe you can keep a dairy or make notes of your day out in the field, it has plenty of room for that as well, it is as simple as that…
But knowledge is the key factor to any success & should you wish to bolster that knowledge, then this book encompasses everything within its pages to expand, create, & utilise a comprehensive database, which is simple to create, maintain & add too, allowing in the months & years to come a reflective history at your fingertips…
just like people all field diaries are unique, & as such the challenge here is to do anything you believe will bring your book alive, don’t be afraid to scribble notes down, do a small painting, coloured drawing, line drawing the list is endless, like any diary it is a personal account of the events that happened on that particular day, who you were with, saw, spoke to & literarily anything that you think should be wrote down, you will find that some days you write hardly anything down, whilst other days you will run out of paper, this is a work book, so don’t be afraid to use the margins, and every available space, it is your own personal book so make it your own way…
Before we go to much further, I want to touch on an integral part of this book, when you record anything you have found, you will need something to write the reference down on, with coins and artefacts these are readily available, from either a well-known auction site or specialist dealers, all I will say here is watch out, some purpose made tags are very good value, but be aware of the postage, it can & very often does exceed the cost of the item you are buying, you can make your own, but for the cost go buy some already made as the coin tickets and artefact tags are acid free, F.S.C. & come in various sizes, don’t forget your ticket should stay with the identified item for the duration of its life, why ? coin tickets from the 1700 & 1800 hundreds are as collectable as the coins, but the most important thing here, is it gives both coins and artefacts providence…
The Artefact Journal & Field Diary…
Let’s start at the beginning of the book, we all know its green, so let’s turn over the front cover page, which has a clear cover protector and you will see on the inside cover is your personal entry, along with the volume number, & the previous volume number, (-this is relevant if you are using more than one book, or this is the next volume-) a place to enter the date this book started & below that when the book was completed, with a place to jot down your local F.L.O.’s name below the completion date but as the F.L.O. change regular you might want to either write it in pencil, or leave enough room to insert another name beside the outgoing F.L.O. whilst the P.A.S. telephone number is situated underneath, followed by a short welcome note from us at the bottom of the page…
On the opposite page is a handy contact page, with the relevant entries for you to fill out, where the phone entries are situated, there is enough space for any social media notes to be included, this page is handy for landowners, farmers, dig organisers etc… to be entered leaving out any guesswork that you might have abbreviated on your phone…
Turning the contact page over we come to the first entry of ninety-nine dig pages of the Artefact Journal & Field Diary
Artefact Journal… When you open your book to the first dig page, the Artefact section is situated on the left, & is the first part of this two-page entry section;
Recording your finds could not be simpler, you might not want to archive your finds, but only to write down the artefacts you have found on any given day, whilst others might want to utilize this simple three-part system, allowing you to record your finds, with day, date, which detector etc… all at your fingertips, to make an entry you simply write down your finds, you don’t need to go into reams of data, you might simply want to put in livery button, or button with a line, blank coin, silver hammered etc-etc… identification comes later, but not here… try to write everything you find down, I don’t mean a blow-by-blow account, of the amount of cans you find, enter them here though, simply as numerous cans, gun caps, lead, silver foil coke etc… it is surprising how varied year on year, the finds are, sometimes the field in question is non-productive whilst other years there is an abundance of finds…
In the artefact section there is ample room, if you want to write down the G.P.S. ref…, the six or eight figure OS reference, or even the simplified version by using “what3word” ref…
This section below is only important if you file, store, collect or display your finds, otherwise you just need the reference sequence on your tag, this CTC sequence of figures is as important as the Ref Number if you store your items, as this is the route to the storage area from the dig page…
CTC…
the second most important reference to enter correctly is this second of the three-part system, & itself is another three-part section, but these three parts stay together, and each of these need a number, letter, symbol, or a combination of all three, but keep the combination small, it is prudent to use a pencil, rather than a pen, until you are a hundred percent certain where the artefact is going to stay…
The first “C” stands for cabinet; it could be a coin cabinet, artefact cabinet or something else you keep your collection in, even plastic boxes come under this heading
“T” stands for the “tray” the artefact or coin is kept in, if there is no tray, but “let’s say” a shelf then I suggest numbering that shelf…
The last “C” stands for “cell” a little pocket in the tray for the coin or artefact to rest in… if it is loose & on display in a cabinet, for example then you may want to omit any data, or simple, put a letter to identify the piece, which can be wrote on the ticket, if there are shelves to your display cabinet then just put the shelf number down, remember how important this is, as a reminder, when reading from the Artefact Journal & Field Diary, this is how you find where the coin or artefact has been stored…
Shown below is an example of a livery button that was found, it has gone into – Cabinet 4 – Tray 1 – Cell &
Artefact Journal
| Artefact | C.T.C. | Ref. No. | Artefact | C.T.C. | Ref. No. |
| Blank disc coin | —— | ——- | |||
| Livery Button | 4.1.& | 2.3.2.R | |||
| Love token silver | I.8.@ | 2.3.3.R | |||
| Buckle Frame | 3.1.$ | 2.3.4.R | |||
Reference Number… when you come to this, it is the most important part of keeping a record, and will need entering correctly, because this is your route back from the storage area to the correct Artefact Journal & Field Diary, as long as the coin tickets or tags stay with the Artefact, then everything is traceable back to its origin…
This reference sequence has been done in an order that’s been proven to work, as you are led straight back to the required book, where you can turn to the appropriate dig page, and find the given artefact number on that page, you will also see the field number beside that, this eliminates any of the guesswork, of which number is which…
The first part of any of the reference’s is the number of the book, you must enter the book number, for illustration purpose this is book two, so the numerical 2. gets entered…
At the bottom of the artefact page & the diary page there is a dig number, not a page number, this dig number is writing on both artefact and diary pages, & is an important part of your record, the example shown here shows it is dig number three, so the numerical 3 gets entered after the book number… (2.3.)
This is followed by the artefact number, after you enter an artefact into this section, you simply write in descending order the number which the artefact was wrote up as, in this case, it was the second artefact so was given the number 2 (2.3.2.) that is it, you now have a reference number, which will stay with that artefact, creating a traceable link back to your book…
if you cannot remember what was found first, second or last, I don’t think it matters in plough soil or pasture, but for something special you will remember where the artefact came up from, so that won’t be an issue…
Even when you start to get into double figures, the numbers don’t get overly long, & are easily manageable on the tickets & with every new dig the numbers start again, so they stay relatively short…
Field Numbers… For this final part of the reference, it can be a number or a letter, or a combination of both letter and number, use these field numbers or letters on single fields or if you tend to wander over two or three fields sometimes, then this helps to keep track of what came up & from where…
This field number is totally unnecessary to include on the coin / artefact ticket, & is totally irrelevant to tracking an item back to the book, as when you track an item back to the book, the last part of the reference I.E., the field number will be there, it only needs to be wrote in the book because the book contains all the relevant field information, & will hold the answer to which field it was found in… you don’t need to have an estate map to number fields, an ordnance survey map of 1.25 will be sufficient, as you will know where you are allowed to detect, & this way, once wrote on the map it is an excellent reminder of the numbers you have given to the fields…
please note each number is separated by a dash, or a dot, so the reference number for this button reads, 2.3.2.
Date… putting the date on the end of the ref number is totally unnecessary, it is already written on the page, it just crams everything in, & also restrict the amount of space on your ticket, which then becomes disjointed, instead when you come to write your coin or artefact ticket with the ref. I suggest you put the date across the bottom or to the side of the ticket, and in a different coloured ink, with the reference above the date & the C.T.C. above that, but leave enough space above that for your ID Book ref…
On the reverse of the coin ticket the best order from the bottom to the top, is (-date-) Ref; number, C.T.C & ID Book ref; number…
By getting into the habit of writing your coin / artefact tickets in sequential order everything becomes easy to read, and not disjointed…
Field Diary… Opposite the artefact page is your field diary, in this section of the book we have strayed away from the traditional field diary & made it more relevant to Metal Detecting, yet allowing enough space to put your own unique touch to the book, on this page we have tried to cover everything that is relevant to metal detecting today, but with a fast-evolving market it is sometimes difficult to keep up, & areas of the book that is relevant to some detectorists, will not be too others, but there is enough space to write notes, or to keep a proper diary related to your day out in the field…
Shown here is the top part of the page for the field diary, with a lot being self-explanatory which I will skip over…
The camera / video ref-no; is useful tool, as it links the book to when the days recording or photos was uploaded, you can upload the files to a particular date, then change the file name for the pictures or video within your computer’s library, to include the Artefact Journal Volume Number – Dig Page & Farm Name, or a relevant name… by entering this particular short Reference Number into the book, it allows you to enter that ref. no. into the computers search engine, at any time in the future where it should take you straight to that particular file, saving the day & date for the future, a farm name or relevant name is to act a reminder when scanning through the photos, and you have the Artefact Journal & Field Diary’s ref number to go back and see what was happening on that day…
Previous AJFD Book Number; for illustration purpose, the field we are talking about here is field R, and you detected on last year, & entered into your first Artefact Journal & Field Diary, as dig no. 89…
As an example; you have been out detecting on the exact same field again this year…
When you get to this section, find the last time you entered the details, you then take the book number, then the dig number, and for clarification the field number… you enter this sequence into the section marked Previous AJFD 1-89-R
By using this section, it does not matter how many times you have detected on any particular field, because by recording the last time you detected this field, you start to create a paper trail backwards, which will over time give you one more piece of the jigsaw, creating an ever-expanding picture, at what the field has given up previously…
when you get to your second volume of the Artefact Journal & Field Diary, & it is your first time back on this field with this new book, simply enter the old book number, in this case book number one, and dig number of the last visit, which was dig eighty nine, 1-89-R, which translate into book 1 & can be found on dig page 89 (R) that’s the only time the ref to the first book needs to be mentioned in book two, as you move forward, again field numbers are best to be put down, as a cross ref to an area…
| Day & Date 23.9.21 Thursday | Time Out… 7.45 | Time on Site… 8.20 |
| Camera / Video Ref-No Hayeswood 1-175-230921 | Previous AJFD Book-No 1 – 89 – R | |
| Location… Hayeswood Farm… | Weather… cool, cloudy, threatened to rain all day but stayed away |
At the bottom of the Field Diary page, you will find more self-explanatory sections, how many you use is your choice, if your detector relies on being plugged in tick the box, and count the battery hours, field note can for example be used for a programmes name, instead of the settings, if you changed settings half way through or it is handy for anything that can be wrote in brief…
| Time off Site 4.40 | Time Home 5.45 | Detector Used… T2 | |
| Metal Detector Battery Hours – 12 + 8½ = 20½ | Pin Pointer Battery Hours – 7 + 8½ = 15½ | Coil Used… Standard | |
| Continued from Page Number | Detector Settings 88 22 2+ 93 9 2+ | ||
| Field Numbers R | |||
| Detector / Coil Charged | Headphones Charged | ||
| Dig Field Note Strange that this large field will have three crops on this year, side by side | |||
An Idea for a Short Hunt…
Now if like me, and hundreds of others, you pop out for a quick hunt for an hour or so, you will not want to use up a page for that hunt, but, i thonk it should be recorded, so, I “believe” this is the best method to avoid having to waste pages on a short and often non-productive hunt, shown here is a method to record short hunts…
You will see that I have entered five quite short hunts during that particular week, with a five hour hunt entered on the Saturday, on three of those hunts, all that turned up were buttons, scrap, and this is how I entered them in the journal section, broken buttons, can, foil & other scrap…
But whether this was a non-productive search or not, to conform with the numbers remaining equal, you have to give every hunt a ref, so in book number two, this was dig number 43 with the first hunt ref of 2.43.1, but with nothing to show the CTC remains without being entered…
For the second hunt, on the same page, it then follows on with the book number two (-2-) but with an added missive to distingué between each dig, use the alphabet for this as the letters get into the greater numbers before reaching double figures, so dig two on the same page reads (-2A-) …
dig number is forty-three (-2A.43-)
and even though it was only scrap that was found the artefact number should be recorded as 2 (-2A.43.2-)
with the subsequent digs being given an ascending order of the alphabet and artefact numbers…
does it matter that it is dig forty-three when it should read dig forty-four or higher, I don’t think so, plus how would this fit onto the ref, (2.43-44.2. maybe, I think this would be slightly more long winded, but it is a choice, with the next full hunt numbered higher than the previous hunt) if you find an item during a short hunt, that is what matters, it can be traced back, by any artefact or dig back to its origins, by inserting a letter, it instantly shows it was a search amongst a serious of short or non-productive hunts, sometimes you might want to include two full digs per page, then that’s another viable option, as for the battery usage, location, machine etc… use the diary as to record hours, and other data, with the last hunt, use the end figure to be entered into allocated spots… most options are available simply by using the diary page, as an extension…
New book, for a new life, well the book is not going to make me retire early, if anything I’ve just increased my workload…
It had a Soft Launch…
So, when was the launch, well the launch date is a bit flat, as it is already out there… But when i have more than the pre-print copies, IE the first batch, then it will be officially launched, maybe on the first of May, which seems a good date, i wanted 2-3-4 as the original date, but we are just going past that with the first delivery… (- for those who don’t know 2-3-4 actually stands for 23rd April, which is St. Georges Day, whos the Patron Saint of England -)
So what does it look like… Well, the first thing is it is not a pocket version, despite part of the title being Field Diary, as it is an A4 size, with a gloss front & rear cover, and a clear Acetate Sheet, giving the front & back covers some protection from sticky fingers, on the pre-proof book, it was a grey cover with a book-entry at the bottom of the page, in my infinite wisdom i thought Book would look and sound better, well it sounds better in your head when looking for reference numbers, but it looks terrible & naff, so that has changed back to volume, the grey front cover & rear cover is now coloured green, with the wording complementing the whole covers with a darker shade of green…
Just to clarify, the original front & back cover of the single-page Artefact Journal & Field Diary, was Orange, but as this new book is now, a double-page entry, we decided on the new colour, as this book has expanded, & been updated, with new internals, whilst the old single version is being transformed into the new format, & when released it will retain its Orange colour, as will the single A4 Folder Version, which the last few remaining pages have all but gone…
Instead of binding this book as “perfect bound” which means that it has a glued spine which is then covered in paper, which seems to be the chosen route, everyone else goes down, i have chosen to bind this book in “coil bound” which allows the book to be laid flat, & as this is a workbook it does seem logical to have chosen this route…
If you have ever tried writing in a book that wants to keep rising in the middle the first thing you do is break its spine, this, in turn, breaks the glue, binding it all together, and soon it will start to lose its shape, and later the pages start to move & as you shuffle them back in place you are weakening them further, & before long they start to fall out, so by choosing a coil bound book, it should be able to withstand a lot more abuse than a book bound with glue, we have chosen to use a plastic coil, as this can be kept cleaner, less noisy, and holds the pages tighter, but we have not dismissed using the wiro-coil, in the future, we might use the wiro-coil as a chosen binding for later books, but for the foreseeable future though, we will be using a plastic coil…
i have copyrighted this work from start to finish, with most of the content being started over fifty years ago, but, now this is the big but, no one has come anywhere close to the way this book has been laid out, like most things, it does not need to over complicated, it is a method to write notes and keep track on your life out in the field because it is so simple, with other books or methods people try to overthink the obvious whereas this starts and ends at the obvious…
it has been called a system by those who are using it, but there is no system to it, you can use as much or as little of the book as you want, but by utilizing the complete content, within a month of use, if you have been going out once a week, already a picture of the jigsaw would already have become apparent…
We chose a well-known copyright company, for Authors, and Artisans alike, who reassured us, and keep doing so that our work is protected worldwide, I’ve had so many of my ideas taken from me and people have exploited the ideas, & me, mainly it’s because i have had lack of funds, but this one, I’ve tried my best to keep it a well-known secret, it has been protected since the 1970s, without me knowing it, but now legally i have the law on my side, ok it costs a yearly subscription but hey nothing is free…
Spot the mistake, under the new battery relaced should read replaced, yep, i missed out the p, but it is not displaced in the book…
udigidig.com 