No I'm not cutting it in half, its not even mine.
Little out of the normal even for me, but pretty cool anyway.
While working on a original  family owned plantation down here, were there was a "small" Civil War battle, I found this laying next to the front door.   The battle was portrayed in the movie "Glory" which starred Morgan Freeman and others.  Its where the colored troops finally were allowed to fight during the Civil War. Although they lost the battle, Sherman's March came thru 2 weeks latter burning the entire town down.  
From what I've been told, its an 11 inch mortar cannon ball, with a water capped fuse (second pic).  Its 3 1/4 inch thick, and filled with black powder.  
They thought its was demilled (made inert), but it was live!  After some convincing, its now on its way to someone who will defuse it professionally for $50.  (Crazy)  It will be returned to the plantation after electrolysis  for a couple of months.
If the police or DOD would have been called, they would have most likely have destroyed it.  Enjoy  
wolfganggross  (yes, that's my foot)

So did they keep the cannon hidden in the cellar?

Wow... cool find

That's super cool.  I wonder if the black powder is still good.

I want to see who will make it inert for 50 bux

$50 fee!  

What is SOP to make safe?

Hammer...It's a one-time fee.

Its Naval cannon ball, that's why the anchor on the fuse.  So it was launched from a boat.  Also its the low country, no basements.  Mostly swamps.
There are 2 people that I know of that will still inert large civil war era projectiles, one in GA, another in NC.  They both charge the same, $40-50.  They are both pretty old and this knowledge will probably die with them.
The properties of black powder allow it to get wet, and when dried its still explosive.
DO NOT try this at home, you always here people blowing them selves up.  
There is special contraption that will slowly drill out the cannon ball in a bucket of water to keep heat and sparks down.  Needs to be grounded too.  The idea is to release the sulfur smelling gas under controlled conditions that's in the interior.  Normally its through the side of the projectile so you can see that its been made inert.  But this one is 3 1/4 inches thick, so he has to drill down through the fuse, with a small enough drill bill so not to destroy the writing (1/4 in bit)
Then the powder is washed out with water, then several months of electrolysis or it will rust from the inside out.
Value on something like this, without the provenance of which battle........$400 for a crappy one, $1000 for a mint.  This one around $600.

Wow!

Do you think it was a dud, or just unused?

Awesome example in any case.

It's black powder, how hard could it be to defuse... Very cool find BTW.

Yeah, just get a socket that fits and get to wrenchin!.      

Hopefully you are kidding.  Black powder would have leached into the fuse threads by now, one twist with a wrench and we would be reading your obituary in the news paper!

Best off for the professionals, there is a lot of little tricks and knowledge that takes to do this kind of stuff.  It always seems easy until you do it wrong, no second chances.

Of course its sat there, out side for 150 years.  When I was there, the painters were using it as a soccer ball, flooring guys were cleaning there brushes with acetone and lacquer thinner on it.  One of the framer's dropped it from 4 feet off the ground onto the bricks.  And that's just 2 weeks of its life that I have seen.
So not a big danger.  More of a potential danger if you mishandle or don't respect it.

To me it looks like the fuse burned out mid air before it could be set off.  This place is littered with them!

Dude; those are some tough painters...

 

Very Kewl.
Curious what the weight of that badboy is..........

ho lee fuk



 

What?! No cross section?!?!

My step father plowed up a 10lb parrot shelling the late 80s. It was covered in red clay and he thought it was a rock and beat it from between the plow teeth with a hammer. I dug one if the same type at dusk with a metal detector that ease standing straight up. Grazed it a few times with a pick before I realized what it was.

In case anyone doubts BP can remain dangerous for a while.

Man Killed In Civil War Cannonball Blast

article here

There are numerous instances of people keeping old cannon balls on their mantles for years until one day they just decide to blow up and destroy the room. Those old BP rounds are not to be taken lightly.