Grabbed a kitchen tool for sifting and it actually worked great

I was helping clean up some trench soil yesterday and used a flour sifter instead of my usual screen. It caught all the tiny bits way better, so spotting pottery fragments was a breeze lol. Definitely gonna keep one in my field kit from now on.

3 comments

3 Comments

ward.robin1mo ago

Oh man that's such a smart move, I've totally used a fine mesh strainer for the same thing when I was cleaning some old buttons and nails from a homesite. It's way faster than shaking a whole screen around. Found a tiny carved bead once that would've just fallen through my normal setup. Honestly half my gear is just repurposed kitchen stuff at this point, it just works.

hugopark1mo ago

Tried using a spaghetti colander for sifting gravel last summer. It caught all the small shell fragments my regular sieve missed. Your bead story reminds me of that, how easy it is to overlook tiny finds. What other kitchen tools have you found handy for digging?

amy5821mo ago

Totally agree with @ward.robin on the kitchen gear hack. I've used a colander for quick sifting when my real screen was too big. Lets you see the small stuff right away. Saved me so much time on a dig last month. Plus it's cheap and easy to replace if it breaks.