Bush Scythe Fragments

About This Artifact

Multiple iron fragments identified as parts of bush scythes, discovered through metal detection near the mysterious stone well on Lot 26 during Season 10. The fragments were found alongside other artifacts including a pipe tamper, during the team's investigation of the well and its surroundings.

Blacksmith expert Carmen Legge examined the fragments and identified them as components of bush scythes - heavy-bladed tools used to clear dense vegetation and brush. Based on their construction style, Legge dated them to the mid-17th century, well before any known permanent settlement of Oak Island and more than a century before the discovery of the Money Pit in 1795.

The fragments were subsequently taken to a university laboratory for further analysis. Metal composition testing confirmed the dating, suggesting the scythes were consistent with 17th-century manufacture, though possibly slightly later than an iron nail recovered from inside the well itself, which returned a probable 17th-century date.

The presence of bush scythes on Lot 26 is significant. These were practical land-clearing tools, the kind a ship's crew would carry ashore to hack through undergrowth. Their location near the well - which geoscientist Dr. Ian Spooner found to contain elevated silver levels and which may date to considerably earlier - raises the possibility that the well served as a known landmark, and that crews returned to the island to clear brush and locate something previously hidden.

Lot 26 was one of several lots later owned by Samuel Ball, a former enslaved man from South Carolina who became one of Oak Island's wealthiest residents. The lot has produced a range of pre-searcher artifacts, fueling long-standing questions about what Ball may have found during his years on the island.