Falcon ... isn't that a beer ???

Vacation, finally, long-awaited and devoted to gold panning in Ädelfors. So my wife Heike and I jumped into the motorhome and sped along the E4 directly to Ädelfors. It was a fond reunion with the gang who are always there and those who are only there sometimes, like ourselves.
The new marquee is huge and an asset to the whole area. It turned out to be the perfect cozy place in the evenings where everyone enjoyed themselves and sat together for a long time to grill meatballs or sausages and at the same time talk about the day's experiences with the sink and drain.

Just on such a pleasant evening, Tok-Anders received a message about a study place in northernmost Norrland. He was happy and disappointed at the same time. It meant tearing down the dear wash chute among the piles and leaving all dear friends, but at the same time a new chance for big nuggets of gold in the north. We will surely hear from him again soon.

After the first days of hard work moving dry gravel from one side of the slope, washing the gravel and throwing it to the other side to Emån, Benny (from Denmark) suggested that we search with the metal detector among the stones from the gold mine, for large gold nuggets. He had therefore bought a Falcon and had good results so far.

What the hell, Falcon is a beer or a bird. Ha, ha, ha, big laugh. Don't know what a Falcon is? - No, I don't.

Benny disappeared for three minutes to his new (old) caravan, only to return with a small box, some cable and a plastic pipe.
Here you will see. So, you set it here, (it started beeping and whistling) then you screw it here (the beeping stopped) adjust here again (new beep) and fine-tune here again (the beeping stopped) and then it is perfectly set. Benny pulled a stone out of his pocket and pointed the pipe at the stone. The result was beeping again. Now it should only sound when the pipe is moved in the direction of stone with mineral (gold). It beeps when the tube is pulled, it is absolutely not metal (gold). He swears that there is gold in that stone. I barely got to look at the stone. Well, there was some pyrite. I wouldn't have said that. Benny grabbed his piece of rock again and it quickly disappeared into his pocket again.

But it seemed easy to deal with that dummy. OK - then I can borrow your "Falcon" and we'll go to the mine.

No, no, - it didn't work. Such a thing (Falcon) is a personal property, very sensitive and must only be handled by experienced and sensitive fingers. But Guldis is happy to sell you one like that, brand new. Aha, how much then? Now it arrived - only SEK 2,500. Have. As found. My face got a little long. First of all, I wanted to test it to find out if it was something for me.

Please Kathe came and offered to lend me her Falcon. Then everything was clear, the next day the sink pan will be replaced with a Falcon.

Satan, the next morning Kathe had forgotten the misery at home on the farm. But then ask Pia, she has one up in the office. A short walk to the "gold digger's shop" where Pia handles sales to gold diggers all over the world. She (and her parrot John Silver) were inside. Well, she had that Falcon with new batteries ready, there's a yuppy teddy bear and Kathe was aware of my case. Should I find larger quantities of gold, it is best to share.

Now was the time, finally. Just then a guy named Lars-Erik appears. Can I join in? Yes, of course, you have a blue ribbon on your hat. But Lars-Erik just wanted to know where we should go and drive himself. I jumped into Benny's yellow mail van, which used to belong to Telecom. But it takes us nicely to the mine. There we start with the fine tuning of our viewfinders and it started beeping from right and left.

Benny purposefully goes to a place where he has previously been lucky. The rest of us start a little to the side, but not too far away, to be able to check the situation. We pick stones and it beeps when Falcon is brought there and it beeps when you take it away from the stone. There was a low beeping from right and left. Every single time there was a question, sometimes from two guys at the same time, - "Did something happen?". No, not that. After a while I became thoughtful about the reason, because it beeped in a chorus. Benny came, to look. You have it set too fine. He turned buttons and it got quieter. Try again, but take it a little easier now. What, calm down. Early bird catches most worms.

Three old men stand bent over and pick stones. Two cars arrive, people jump out and I can hear them talking in a well-known language that starts with T. Of course they ask what we are doing and if there really will be any gold. We show a beautiful piece with lots of pyrite and assure it is a good piece with a lot of gold in it and send them to the gold panning to get rich. They quickly disappear and we continue. My bucket is already half full of rocks when we take a short break. I have a thermos of coffee with me and offer a sip. We are a bit thoughtful about the stones and all the beeping. I start a little easy by letting the Falcon stroke almost level with the ground and get a strong howl on almost at once. Everyone jumps high. The little spade digs up - a nail. Well, it's not that easy. We start the search again and I continue with light sweeps over the ground. Again it howls loudly. I take out the spade again and dig up a small pile. I try every stone, but it's not there. Falcon is still howling on the ground. Dig again. Lars-Erik has noticed something and comes to "help". We check carefully. Something emerges there. No nail in any case. Rather round like a button, a gold button??????

I pull down the pants to get the thing cleaner. Lars-Erik starts laughing, I stare wide-eyed at what I'm holding in my hand. It was a button, but not of gold. It was clearly one from "Levi Strauss" and Falcon screeched deliciously near it. Benny thought it must be old because it lay so deep.

Lars-Erik had had enough and disappeared from the scene. Benny and I continued for quite a while picking rocks, one prettier than the other. Almost every rock fiend chimed in so my bucket filled up pretty quickly. We broke because the sun showed us that it was late afternoon. The stomach told me that it was rather evening.

You must pour oxalic acid into the bucket and let it stand overnight. Then all the oxidation on the metal disappears and the stones become clean. Benny offered some of the white powder.

The next day I arrived with washing-up liquid and a brush. God it sparkles and shines. I bang up to Benny and Guldis. Both are downright diplomatic and refer to the microscope to determine whether there could be gold in the stones. But there is a lot of pyrite in any case.

So now the bucket is here at home on the balcony and I'm thinking about who I can give them to because I haven't found any gold among them. But next year it will be the gold pan again, for a thousand old men.

Greetings to all (preferably also Tok-Anders) from Rolf Ulbrich in Germany.