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Do you dowse?

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Old Oct 19, 2008 | 07:40 PM
  #1  
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Do you dowse?

Today I was at the horse ranch where I do handyman work on occasion. We were building a new training ring and needed to auger some post holes where we knew there was a water line and a buried power line. Using a pair of two foot long pieces of #4 copper ground wire we easily located the path of the underground lines. Have you ever used, or seen someone using, a set of dowsing rods?
 
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Old Oct 19, 2008 | 08:08 PM
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From: The Great North~West!
Yes, I use them regularly!!

I work on a Wind Farm and whenever we have to dig up our collection cables or fiber optics for repair, I can "witch" the trench in about five minutes. It takes the boys about 20 to find it with their $20,000.00 machine!!! And my witching is way more accurate than theirs!!!
 
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Old Oct 19, 2008 | 08:12 PM
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From: Moonlight Moose Enclosure
I have seen them used. I was a skeptic but saw then in real life and was floored. I saw them use two sticks. how does this happen?
 
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Old Oct 19, 2008 | 08:12 PM
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ive seen this done. It is carzy.
 
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Old Oct 19, 2008 | 08:18 PM
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it not crazy, its the magnetic field that allines the metel rods when they cross the utilitys path.we use line locators for our pipeline crossings,but when we used to hand expose the lines,we would witch their location first.Saved alot of digging in the wrong spots.
 
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Old Oct 19, 2008 | 08:26 PM
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I got the demensions and made some copper ones.
I walked out of the house and around to the side and they crossed.
I walked on a few feet more and said to myself this is stupid, and went back inside.
A couple of days later I remembered there was a big drainage pipe under where they crossed. I havn't fooled with them since.
 
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Old Oct 19, 2008 | 11:11 PM
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From: Cook Forest and Irwin PA
copper aint magnetic....
 
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Old Oct 19, 2008 | 11:17 PM
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Copper wire above a pvc pipe full of water; it sure isn't magnetism.
 
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Old Oct 20, 2008 | 12:32 AM
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Never seen it done, heard about it.
 
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Old Oct 20, 2008 | 05:32 AM
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Less give it a try.
 
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Old Oct 20, 2008 | 07:34 AM
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if it a pvc pipe it probley has a tracer wire on it for locateing it underground,correct?
 
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Old Oct 20, 2008 | 07:47 AM
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From: Location, Location.
I've watched my uncle take a y-shaped branch, he prefers hickory or cherry, bend the branches of the y in his hands with the extension sticking srtaight out, then go walking around the farm. He'll come to a spot where, despite his best efforts, he cannot prevent the stick from turning downward. Dig there - there's always water. Dig anywhere else, you come up dry. But only some people in the family can do it. His father could, but I can't.
 
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Old Oct 20, 2008 | 09:03 AM
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From: Moonlight Moose Enclosure
but how does a stick do it? I have just been told my grandfather back in the 1920's would dowse on their farm with a "Y" branch and it would always lead him to a ground water source.
 
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Old Oct 20, 2008 | 10:19 AM
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I watched a plumber use a bent welding rod to locate the 6" pvc water line in the ground at the road where my house is located. That line is also buried 6 feet in the ground! I remember when my house was being set up and the plumber back then, now deceased, installing a saddle valve on that 6" line being held by his ankles from above!

But that plumber that used that bent welding rod, found that water line!

Oh yeah, my house was set up back in 98. This other plumber just used the rod a couple months ago.
 
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Old Oct 20, 2008 | 11:54 AM
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Originally Posted by shorebird
Today I was at the horse ranch where I do handyman work on occasion. We were building a new training ring and needed to auger some post holes where we knew there was a water line and a buried power line. Using a pair of two foot long pieces of #4 copper ground wire we easily located the path of the underground lines. Have you ever used, or seen someone using, a set of dowsing rods?
I always thought that was just an English thing.

In England as I'm sure you know it's often done to locate underground water, also known as 'divining', some people use rods as you mentioned but it's also done using a willow fork resting on one's fingers.

Not sure I believe it works but I'm certain you could find cables with copper rods as you did.
 
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