Divining rods

[coachgrd]

Have any of you seen someone successfully locate water using divining rods? Or maybe you can work them yourself??? Just wondering. What is their rate of success?

 

[Tig]

I've played with them while looking for a buried well. It seemed to work but only for me. I always triggered on the same spot. But honestly I don't believe it so strongly that I would try to convince anyone else that it really happened. I was amused but I just don't see real science in it.

 

[NSBound]

My father could use diving rods - he used forked branches from a fruit tree, I think, or maybe a willow. I remember him hanging on tight and the branch twisting down toward the ground, actually twisting the bark off the branch in his hands, he was holding it so tight. He tried to show mw how and no way would it work for me! I also had a well dowsed where I am now nad the guy used welding rods! And it worked.

 

[jwstewar]

I need to find a water line to tap into it when I built my barn. I used 2 coat hangers that I had cut and bent into a 90. Held them loosely in my hands until they crossed. I started digging but didn't find the water line so I figured it didn't work. Started digging else where and still couldn't find it. Went and got the tractor and started digging a bigger/deeper hole. Found the water line. Right where the coat hangers had crossed only deeper than I had thought. I knew I had put it down between 32 & 36" - I forgot about the fill that had gotten put on top and that made it down about 48".

 

[LD1]

It works for me too. I use the wire as well, bent into 90 and held loosley. Sometimes it's coathanger, sometimes fence wire, or whatever else is avaliable.

My parents live in an 100 year old farm house and we had no idea where the septic was and it needed pumped. We knew where it came out of the house at so we went about 10ft away and walked until they crossed and put a flag in the ground. We repeted this until they wouldn't cross anymore and started comming back toward the house a foot at a time until they crossed again, and then we started to dig. We were right on the money.

The weird part of all of this is the line went out about 25ft from the house, made a 45 degree bend and went another 50 feet, and then a 45 again for about 20 feet.

I have also used this method to find water lines, and water tile. Just horsing around one day at work, where the have drains under about 8" on concrete and then 2 foot of dirt, and it actually works through concrete too.

 

[cowboy357]

I,ve seen them Used & My Dad swore by them , But never tried it myself. Curious as I Need to find some underground electric lines as well as water & sewar lines . What Type of wire will Work the Best. Welding wire ? Thanks , Bob .

 

[LD1]

Any type of wire will work. Coat hanger, fencing wire, bailing wire. I've even been out in a field trying to find a tile, and went to the fencerow, and snipped off some 50year old rusted wire and it worked just as well.

It will not work on the electric line though, unless it was burried in conduit and it filled up with water,

 

[cowboy357]

Any type of wire will work. Coat hanger, fencing wire, bailing wire. I've even been out in a field trying to find a tile, and went to the fencerow, and snipped off some 50year old rusted wire and it worked just as well.

It will not work on the electric line though, unless it was burried in conduit and it filled up with water,

Ok , Makes sense I Guess on the Electric , hopefully Its Ran side by side to the waterline thats running to the same building . Thanks for the wire info Ld1 . , Bob

 

[Bird]

The only time I've actually done it myself, we used a manual auger, and sure enough, found water about 10' down. That was using a forked stick. Would we have found the water table in other places in the area? Probably. I've seen others do it with a forked stick and with two copper rods bent 90 degrees. One of the guys who was hired to locate underground telephone lines at my place a few years ago was asked about a water main and he used the copper rods and told us he was certain about where he marked the water main. It turned out to be on the other side of the borrow ditch. I'm still skeptical; don't know whether to believe it or not.

 

[Mike Costello]

I've seen it done also and must admit I was suspicious at first. An ole boy helped me locate a septic system line by using two welding rods bent at 90 degrees. He was dead on...so I tried it and it worked! I'd like to know the theory behind it, though. Mike.

 

[jinman]

If you only use 1 wire, does it spin in circles "looking" for the other wire when you get over water, metal, or septic sludge? Is the interaction between wires, or does one wire know it's in your left hand and should go right while the other knows it's in your right hand and should go left?

Yep! I'm a skeptic. I told my well driller to put his "divinging rod" over the spot I wanted my well. After that "divining rod" went down 386', it crossed the Trinity Sands and up popped water just like magic.

 

[turnkey4099]

I do it and have used them successfully (bent wires) but I have my doubts.

Located 2 wells for other people and one for myself - big deal - here you can drill anywhere and find water.

Located my septic tank by tracing the input pipe (oddly it would not indicated the tank itself - it quit where the pipe entered. - again big deal as I knew very close to where it was.

Traced out the septic tank 'seep' lines for my neighbor - big deal - they were in the only logical place and orientation. However she insisted there were three - I only found two (confirmed from digging).

Traced out a water line from the community well to a school house over a 1/4 mile - too bad that I never found teh pipe inspite of a lot of digging. What I did find at the school was that the pipe entered 180 degrees from what the wires said.

Bottom line is that all the stuff I have found with them were pretty much either already known to me in general or in the only logical place for them to have been.

One additional: Built a concrete block kneewall on top of a patio pad. Wondered the pad was solid enough. Wires showed there was rebar in the perimeter. Confirmed that by almost gettin a broke leg when the electric rotohammer hit it, jammed and smacked my shin


Harry K

Harry K

 

[jayste]

The only time I've actually done it myself, we used a manual auger, and sure enough, found water about 10' down. That was using a forked stick. Would we have found the water table in other places in the area? Probably. I've seen others do it with a forked stick and with two copper rods bent 90 degrees. One of the guys who was hired to locate underground telephone lines at my place a few years ago was asked about a water main and he used the copper rods and told us he was certain about where he marked the water main. It turned out to be on the other side of the borrow ditch. I'm still skeptical; don't know whether to believe it or not.

Bird,
One day a coworker and I were talking about something being in the "bar ditch" as we call it around here and got to wondering about where the term came from. We looked it up and it told how the term is actually Borrow Ditch and explained how it was derived. I'm saying this because you are the first person I've ever seen or heard use the correct term. I know this has absolutely nothing to so with this thread but had to mention it! I use to joke about it being called bar ditch because when you leave the bar that's usually where you end up!

 

[Bird]

Bird,
One day a coworker and I were talking about something being in the "bar ditch" as we call it around here and got to wondering about where the term came from. We looked it up and it told how the term is actually Borrow Ditch and explained how it was derived. I'm saying this because you are the first person I've ever seen or heard use the correct term. I know this has absolutely nothing to so with this thread but had to mention it! I use to joke about it being called bar ditch because when you leave the bar that's usually where you end up!

And the only reason I use the "correct" term when I write it is because I did the same thing years ago; i.e., looked it up to see why we called it a "bar" ditch. I might say it was an Oklahoma term, since I was born at Ardmore and lived in Oklahoma until I was nearly 17, but down here in Texas, I think most folks here, too, call it the bar ditch. Or maybe it's just the accent that makes us think people are saying bar instead of borrow.

 

[mbohuntr]

I had a well driller "witch" a well on our property, I've seen the fruit branches used, and never had any luck myself. The fella asked if I wanted to try it, so after he had marked the spot w/paint, he handed the branch to me and had me walk toward the spot. .. Nuttin... I stood over the spot and he said "WATCH THIS" he touched me on the shoulder and the branch like to rip out of my hands!!! I have used the bent wires and had decent luck with them on buried water lines...

 

[coachgrd]

Thanks for sharing everyone, this is all very interesting.

 

[MossRoad]

And the only reason I use the "correct" term when I write it is because I did the same thing years ago; i.e., looked it up to see why we called it a "bar" ditch. I might say it was an Oklahoma term, since I was born at Ardmore and lived in Oklahoma until I was nearly 17, but down here in Texas, I think most folks here, too, call it the bar ditch. Or maybe it's just the accent that makes us think people are saying bar instead of borrow.

I first heard the term 'borrow ditch' when on a tour of the Everglades in Florida. They borrowed the soil for other projects and that's what created the ditches... which are now full of alligators!

And, Bird, you were born in Ardmore, TX.... I live in an area called Ardmore, Indiana.

 

[Bird]

And, Bird, you were born in Ardmore, TX.... I live in an area called Ardmore, Indiana.

David, there isn't an Ardmore, TX as far as I know. I didn't make myself clear in the earlier post. I was born at Ardmore, OK which is about 80 miles north of where I live now. Actually, I was born in my grandparents' house in Carter County, maybe 5 miles north of Ardmore, although I think the city limits may have moved out that far by now. And I never knew there was an Ardmore, IN.

 

[jayste]

And the only reason I use the "correct" term when I write it is because I did the same thing years ago; i.e., looked it up to see why we called it a "bar" ditch. I might say it was an Oklahoma term, since I was born at Ardmore and lived in Oklahoma until I was nearly 17, but down here in Texas, I think most folks here, too, call it the bar ditch. Or maybe it's just the accent that makes us think people are saying bar instead of borrow.

I was just wondering. We came up with the same definition as MossRoad. You may be right on that "slang" term of borrow sounding like bar. Growing up I thought something you put your clothes in was "chester drawers" AKA chest of drawers! By the way, are you sure you don't hail from Springer or Gene Autry? I think you're right Ardmore has probably claimed that area by now.
As far as this "witchin'" thread, I've seen a guy about 20 yrs ago who claimed he could witch for oil!? Of course he was an ex-used car salesman and full of bull dung and I don't think he and his "granny" made it to Beverly Hills!

 

[Bird]

That's hilarious, Jay, because as a kid, I used to wonder where they came up with the name "chester drawers" myself.

Two of dad's sisters married brothers from Springer, so I've been there a few times. And as a kid in the 4-H Club, I showed Berkshire hogs in the Gene Autry Colliseum in Ardmore, so as a Gene Autry fan, it kinda annoyed me when they renamed it the Hardy Murphy Colliseum a few years ago.