Dowsing for water , Witching the ditch .

[Charles in Aus.]

Some time ago I asked about ways to find the sewer pipe at our home . I need to tap into it for an additional bed and bath room .
The alternatives were pipe locating services at astronomical cost ! or hiring the gear , which is non existant here .
Dowsing or Witching as you seem to call it was the cheapest alternative , so with only some effort to lose I tried looking for the pipe .
Plans showed it 12 feet away from where my wires crossed . Try as I did I couldn't get a result anywhere near where the pipe was supposed to be so I trusted in the Witch .
I used a manual post hole auger and extended the handle with sections of pipe down seven or eight feet .
I hit quarter minus gravel used to bed the pipe in !
Amazed and pretty certain I had found it I dug the hole , here is the result.

While digging I found the auger had actually grazed the pipe , you can see the slight curve of the cutter in the extreme right . Fortunately it was a hand powered one !
I poured the water in the base you can see , it helped settle the gravel and make it easier to expose the base of the pipe .

 

[RESLLS]

That's great. My wife can do that. So can
one of her brothers. Me? Nope. Septic tank
at vacation home was said to be in a
particular spot. Nope. She found it 30 feet
away. When we got a new well there she
picked the spot. Well driller couldn't
believe how shallow he hit water. Old well
was 225 feet. New one is 86 about 40 ft
away. Some believe, some don't. I'm a
believer!

 

[woodbutcher]

I, too, am a believer. I have seen it work.

Butch

 

[Stroby]

I have no idea how this works....but it does indeed work. I have said many times I don't understand it, but I sure wouldn't dig a well without it.

 

[RCP]

Amazing, I have never believed in witching, but it worked for you.

I would caution you about getting into a hole 8 ft deep without some safety efforts, I know two
people who were killed by ditch cave ins and they were not any deeper than 8 ft.

 

[CCer]

I'm a believer. An old farmer came to our place when I was a kid, showed us how to do it. I did OK, for my Brother, it didn't work. The old farmer laid his hand on my Brother's shoulder, then it worked for them!

 

[JL Ray]

Back in the 80's I tried this at my parents house. I went in several different directions and found three areas where my wires crossed. I asked my dad if he could tell me anything. Yup. One was a electric wire to the barn. One was a one inch pipe for water to a different barn and one was a septic pipe. I had no idea that those were buried there. None of us could believe it till it happened. I never tried looking for water and I have never tried it since. I was using 1/8 welding rods.

 

[John T]

Im a believer BECAUSE IT WORKED FOR ME PERSONALLY. No way I can explain it yay or nay scientifically, how or where or why it
may or may not work for YOU, Im ONLY saying I was pleasantly surprised it sure worked for ME.

John T

 

[4520BW]

I can find water lines and field tile but never tried to find a place for a well. My neighbor put in irrigation pivots and said the well digger need a hand so my dad thought what the heck ill go. He said the guy spent about 20 minutes looking and then found the sweet spot. They hit water at 20 feet. The guy that did the witching was my dads age and they had been station at Fort Lenard Wood at the same time.

 

[Russ from MN]

My wife can do it too! She can walk around our yard and mark all the sprinkler lines.

 

[Mike(NEOhio)]

I've used the coat hanger method to find water lines. My dad told me his dad used a forked twig from a peach tree to find water, the twig had to be green, it would pull
down.

 

[MSD]

Not sure about well drillers finding water. A small housing project I was working on one time had wells for each house. We had hit water at about 40 ft. in all of the houses to that date. The last one I wanted the well in a particular spot and the driller didn't want to do it there but did anyway. Drilled over a 100 ft. and never hit water he claimed. He moved to where he wanted to drill and at 40 ft. hit water. Next one I told him to drill where ever he wanted and it worked out.

 

[PJH]

Charles, you have proved that faith is necessary for successful
dowsing. Lack of faith will hamper your outcome.

We had a contract job replacing every Do Not Pass road sign in
13 counties in Southern Illinois. They dowsed every location
before driving the new posts. We hit one water main out of
thousands of posts. That guy was good - even could find phone
and power lines.

 

[Tgrasher]

When I was 16 yrs old my dad told me to fix a leak in a plastic water line that ran 400 ft across a pasture from a well. The leak had made a puddle of
water about twenty feet across, so even at that age I surmised just digging wasn't a good idea. I used two straightened coat hangers bent to an L and
crossed the line on each dry side and marked it. Then guessed the middle of the puddle and dug on the line I had marked. Bingo!

On a side note, the wife and I have dowsed old cemeteries and found unmarked graves while questioning the pattern of the grave plots.

 

[buickanddeere]

(quoted from post at 07:33:39 04/22/21) I'm a believer. An old farmer came to our place when I was a kid, showed us how to do it. I did OK, for my Brother, it didn't work. The old farmer laid his hand on my Brother's shoulder, then it worked for them!

 

[IowaJohn]

I rented a pipe finder a few years back.
Decided after finding what I needed to try
witching. It worked plus witching finds
plastic pipe and plastic field tile.

 

[PJH]

buickanddeere - did you click on the donate button?

A question for you - . I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?

 

[sotxbill]

Working as an engineer for a well known phone company for 41 years... I did not believe it... Then one day I had a cable locator meet me on a site to locate a cable so I could properly complete drawings for a new cable. He told me he would located it first by witching or dousing with two pieces of #6 copper ground wire that we used for grounding.... and then he would locate with the electronics... well he did and he did. Both in the same... I then had him show me how to do it. Problem is... most people hold the rods too tight and they cant move. You have to loosely hold the rods and support them with very level and make sure they can swing... Trouble again is that as you walk this way, you do a minor tilt and that causes a false swing.. and then the wind blows a bit and that blows them around... but finally I managed to do it after several tries...

SO.. since then I have found I can locate electrical wires, metal pipes, and plastic pipes ONLY if there is water in the plastic pipes. My theory is.... that the metal or water allows the earths magnetic fields a easier path and set up a weak magnetic field,, but stronger than the dirt. So when you cross the field, the wires or coat hangers will line up with the pipe or fields.... I have not located any thing very deep, or large water masses so I cant speak for that. Again, how you hold the wire is critical.

 

[MarkB_MI]

You're a very lucky man. Buy a lottery ticket.

 

[RobCons]

I do it all the time before digging. Never tried to locate water for a well but it works for pipes and wires like a charm. A set of welding rods bent at 90 degrees stay in the truck. Hold them loosely in your hands extended out from your body. About a foot or so apart and level.

 

[Mark-Mi]

I wish I had your luck.

 

[bc]

Very Good Charles. I have good luck using brass brazing rod bent in L shapes. Guess at the line and start walking perpendicular to it in a number of places and flag them. Crossing rods may be a foot or so on either side depending upon if there was a leak. Other wire doesn't work as good for me.

Talked to a 811 locator last fall, he said they only guarantee being within 3 feet of either side of the line. So much for the accuracy their expensive electronic gadgets.

Have a friend who douses with a 1" copper pipe about a foot long with a 6" stub of 1/2" copper pipe soldered on a few inches from the end. Grips the 1" by his side with the stub sticking out to the left. It dips down when he finds something. He has located (so he says) various cattle routes of the Chisholm Trail, wagon ruts of the Santa Fe Trail, horse paths, wagon paths, Indian trails, old building locations, graves, etc. and can even identify if male or female and approximate age of a person in an unmarked grave. I've seen him in action and do believe some of it. At one point I asked him to walk through a field where my previous investigation of features led me to believe the Santa Fe Trail crossed the ground and sure enough, he identified where ruts would have been in the plowed ground.

 

[sotxbill]

""""Talked to a 811 locator last fall, he said they only guarantee being within 3 feet of either side of the line. So much for the accuracy their expensive electronic gadgets. """"""

This is because... the signal again, takes the path of least resistance to the surface. The meter on top, measures the strongest signal. So depending on the compaction and make up of the soil, the high frequency signal may actually be stronger off the the side of the pipe trench, instead of straight up. Heavy clays, rocks, moisture, back fill tamping and types, warning tapes, etc can distort the path a bit again as you can only measure the strongest signal, not the straightest signal. So yes, its common for the paint markers to be up to a foot off in most cases, rarely a bit more. Other pipes and cables near by will also pull the signal off if they are too close.

 

[Traditional Farmer]

I think it has a lot more to do with physics than witchcraft.

 

[bc]

(quoted from post at 10:28:47 04/23/21) I think it has a lot more to do with physics than witchcraft.

Good. Not quite ready to be burned at the stake.

 

[buickanddeere]

you are
Taking that out of context and you know it . Care of livestock was allowed during the Sabbath.
Dont shoot the messenger .
If you want some New Testament data too .

 

[Old560]

Buickanddeere, I agree.

 

[PJH]

Hey - not shooting the messenger at all. I justify my behavior too. The ox is in the ditch, blah, blah, blah.

 

[Charles in Aus.]

I wouldn't like to be the cause of a disagreement .
I'm a Christian , I pray and I attend church, I also don't believe I was in any way in league with the Beast .

Coming from the driest continent on earth I would much prefer to believe that the wires that indicate are guided by natural forces , earth spirits or the hand of the Almighty .
Water is life , finding it must surely be a blessing not a curse .

 

[PJH]

No disagreement here Charles. Just friendly badger. BD and I enjoy butting heads. He's a good guy, and I think I am too. I profess to be a Christian also, but I acknowledge that I can not help that I am also a sinner. We are all sinners with every breath. Someone labeled Dowsing as Witching, and that is the controversy. Mountains out of molehills, as they say. You didn't ask Satan for help in finding your sewer line. Don't let this worry you. BD and I will find something else to argue about in the future, ha. He is a very intelligent man (but don't tell him that I said that).

 

[Charles in Aus.]

I very glad to hear that PJH

I'm sure faith and luck have a lot to do with this as well .
Things don't normally fall into my lap , it's generally a case of hard work and perseverance and a few pitfalls as well , sort of like what happens to us all.
But as Mark suggests I might just go out and buy a lottery ticket

 

[Hdonly]

An old commercial well driller told me to look for one of the big red ant hills. He said if these was any gravel around the ant hill, that you would find shallow water there. The shallow wells here in Florida are in what is called the sand and gravel aquifer. It's usually just below a layer of hard clay.

 

[Jim in N.M.]

When I lived back in Ohio I had a well driller friend that witched all the time! ONLY he
used two pieces of plastic strips about 1/8 in. thick by 1/4in. wide by 20in. long riveted
at one end. I've watched him take the two loose ends and make a V and hold them level and
when he'd find water the leading end of the V would Quiver and pull straight down, And if
he kept going the V would come back up! I'd watched him do it several times! Another thing
When he went to drill he never used his witching unless he was asked ! Sometimes the home
owner would tell him I want the well here he would drill several feet down and not hit
water! the home owner would say Now what Lenard would say Do you want me to Witch sure
maybe 100 feet away he'd say here is ware we drill Of course he'd get paid for the first
hole also! Jim in New Mexico

 

[tirekicker]

Amen buickanddeere.

 

[Tom in Ga]

I use 6 guage copper wires or some time welding rods. I usually locate from 2 directions to double check. I think you have to believe it works to get
good results. For something like a power or phone cable, I would call the locate number and let them be responsible for mistakes I have dug and found
nothing. But if you don't, find anything look overhead. Wires will cross under power lines too..