Two axe heads found top of swamp

[Armchair detective]

This is a new/old puzzle.
When detecting at the top of the swamp, Gary Drayden found two axe heads within 6 ft of each other with broken off handles?
Their sizes were between hatchet and axe.
It strikes me that tools are hard to make, so why would someone just abandon these? Why not just stop chopping and fix the tool? And who carries around 3 hatchets anyway?

 

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[pepperj]

This is a new/old puzzle.
When detecting at the top of the swamp, Gary Drayden found two axe heads within 6 ft of each other with broken off handles?
Their sizes were between hatchet and axe.
It strikes me that tools are hard to make, so why would someone just abandon these? Why not just stop chopping and fix the tool? And who carries around 3 hatchets anyway?

Just in the last decade or so I have found probably 50+ axe heads.
Some sites will have 1 axe others will have 4 axe heads.

Loggers/homesteaders/farmers break handle grab another axe-forget about the other axe-loose the other broken axe.
Handles were made, but some didn't have them available at the time of the break either.

I've even got a collection of hatchet/axe heads (modern) broken handles.

Finding something doesn't imply something else-like "Who carries 3 hatchets anyways"

There might have been a logging crew/camp at that very location.
The broken heads were just left as the crew moved on.

Oh wait I'm probably so wrong in the assumptions I have posted-Because.....

Gary Drayden found them so they MUST be connected to the treasure-
Probably these heads were for chopping down the first growth trees that were for the timbers used in this epic tale.

 

[releventchair]

Well , because Gary was involved!

Between hatchet and axe. Oh my. Now we're parsing for the sake of mystery. Could we please stop doing that?

Where does the story start?
Right. With two kids.
And who better to strew Dad's tools hither and yon? Oh , and break them too.

Axe heads are not unusual finds. No matter what Gary or anyone else insists.
If you want to carry a pair around until they get rehandled. go ahead.
Other tool heads used to show up on my bench at work.
And I'd collect several before taking them to a quiet area they shouldn't have been disturbed to tape them in place as the epoxy dried.

Old enough Oak Island blades were non epoxied and glass handled.
Burning the wood out of a head or at least getting it so hot the edges char makes for easier removal.
Maybe a site was used to accumulate such .
Too soaking heads swelled the wood handles.
And shoving tool heads in oil soaked sand does what?

If you sponsored film making antics for me on the island I'd declare the heads were used as felling wedges for timber. Basque whalers replacing a ships mast or something probably. Ya that's it. It looks like dried whale blood on the broken handle! Or maybe Captain Kidd needed a mast. Not wanting to dulls words pounding on hardwood trees he borrowed some to old from the ships carpenter. (His Dad was a ships carpenter it must be.)
Then made a quick diversion to hide an outrageous treasure (after all he'd be back , right?)over a hundred feet deep in unstable ground adjacent to a higher water table for safe keeping.
That way when he returned in time and no matter what nation ruled the water he had to cross to get there , or who owned the island , he could just set up camp a week or tree and dig up his outrageous treasure! With the original shovels he'd liberated from his Dad's tools. Barely worn wooden ones probably. Afterall he only dug a bit over as hundred feet prior in a few minutes time and backfilled above his treasure.

Kids found a sinkhole. Why?
Because the treasure took up less mass/room than the removed fill did?
Because the fill wasn't returned and the excess blended around or removed from the site to hide everything?
When multiple stops/layers of reinforcement were allegedly added as flooring at varied depths , does that cause more or less sink holing?
Arguing that a hollow area allowed collapse doesn't account for the muti layering aspect and only the first floor would reflect a sinking . All floors to the alleged open area below had failed?
Then too had the engineering.
And the kids would have had easy removals of unsecured floors .
Yet later boring indicates intact wood. Cavity below. Secure keg(s) or barrel(s) above.
Next there will be indications of gremlins. Oh wait.... Have you seen my hatchetaxes?


.






.

 

[releventchair]

Just in the last decade or so I have found probably 50+ axe heads.
Some sites will have 1 axe others will have 4 axe heads.

Loggers/homesteaders/farmers break handle grab another axe-forget about the other axe-loose the other broken axe.
Handles were made, but some didn't have them available at the time of the break either.

I've even got a collection of hatchet/axe heads (modern) broken handles.

Finding something doesn't imply something else-like "Who carries 3 hatchets anyways"

There might have been a logging crew/camp at that very location.
The broken heads were just left as the crew moved on.

Oh wait I'm probably so wrong in the assumptions I have posted-Because.....

Gary Drayden found them so they MUST be connected to the treasure-
Probably these heads were for chopping down the first growth trees that were for the timbers used in this epic tale.

You likely missed the treasure the heads indicated.
How far beyond 100 feet deep did you dig?

Times in your area and other where winter temps can dip quite low an axe head should be warmed before using it. Broken ones show up now and then.
Forged ones depended on the material and smiths skill.
Some came undone at thier forge weld. Some bent lopsided. Some lacked a steel bit insert and were spent.
Some were abused on their poll till it malformed the blade.
One bounced off the wagon into the snow.

Maybe a warring party of two "buried the hatchet"?

Pipe stems were deliberately broken at times . Maybe some folks got too drunk and broke their axe/hatchet handles instead?

 

[n2mini]

I think you missed the point of of what armchair detective was getting at. Sure now a days finding or going to get a new ax head or handle is easy but it wouldn't have been near as easy say 200 years ago especially on an island. I have always thought it was ironic how people on here react to them finding OLD coins. Like it is nothing and yeah sure there are old coins found all the time by some of ya'll but do you find that many is a somewhat concentrated area and from largely different time periods. I always thought it to be kinda crazy for them to be finding that many old coins when back then money was much harder to come by and would have thought people would have kept up with their coins much better. Sure today walk out of any walmart and you can find a coin but we make alot more money then they did back 200-500 and more years ago...

 

[releventchair]

I think you missed the point of of what armchair detective was getting at. Sure now a days finding or going to get a new ax head or handle is easy but it wouldn't have been near as easy say 200 years ago especially on an island. I have always thought it was ironic how people on here react to them finding OLD coins. Like it is nothing and yeah sure there are old coins found all the time by some of ya'll but do you find that many is a somewhat concentrated area and from largely different time periods. I always thought it to be kinda crazy for them to be finding that many old coins when back then money was much harder to come by and would have thought people would have kept up with their coins much better. Sure today walk out of any walmart and you can find a coin but we make alot more money then they did back 200-500 and more years ago...

Ya know. People 200 years ago used to make thier own handles out of wood.
Was there wood on the island 200 years ago?

 

[Armchair detective]

Did not mention Drayden's name so you would bow to it - was thinking more that it would help if you were trying to find the OI episode where they were actually found, and see if the camera picked up any other details.
So...losing or discarding axe heads is/was common. Did not know that.
Did I remember correctly that these two heads' sizes were between hatchet and axe, and that the best guess was a tool that was normally used on ships?
Is it a reach to suggest there was some urgent chopping task - you break one, discard, break another, discard, and on the third you finish, and that you are in a group that fortunately has at least 3 hatchets?

 

[n2mini]

Ya know. People 200 years ago used to make thier own handles out of wood.
Was there wood on the island 200 years ago?

That's just it, why not fix the ax head vs leaving it behind... They didn't just run to Lowes and buy a whole new one like we do today.. You'd fix it and keep digging/chopping... Not break it and throw both pieces on the ground..

 

[jose159]

Like pepperj..I have dug up dozens of axe heads and wedges and even sledge hammer heads and I always wonder if it was just easier to just grab a new one instead of taking the time to repair the broken one.

 

[n2mini]

I would think it depends on how old it is. Sure in the last 100 years just go buy a new one. 200-500 years ago not so easy and not everyone had the spare money to just throw it away and go buy a new one while living and or working on an island...

 

[TruthbeTold]

Only on oak island does the finding of common items such as axe heads trigger someone to state, “that’s proof of a fabulous treasure”.

 

[releventchair]

That's just it, why not fix the ax head vs leaving it behind... They didn't just run to Lowes and buy a whole new one like we do today.. You'd fix it and keep digging/chopping... Not break it and throw both pieces on the ground..

The right(user preference from available stock) wood and a year to season green wood.
Handles are /were a good winter project. Patiently finishing one with a piece of broken glass to smooth it just so for example.
A good fireside task.

There has been mention elsewhere of natives slitting a chosen carefully green limb to insert a stone head in and let it heal over the slit.
A lithic in a tree crotch someone I know encountered could have got there the same way.
Did those placers know where they placed axe heads? Of course.

What did folks 200 years ago have for pockets?
Where did tools get repaired? Think small forge on most homesteads and big "job" sites.
A blacksmith could have shelves and tidy storage.
He could also just as well indicate where to dump or place your offering .

Wasa cooper on site?
A carpenter?
They too could have done said repairs. Or had seasoned wood for material. Or not having such could they have for a mutually beneficial deal taken the broken tools in on trade for replacements.?

I recently moved a tired woodpile from several years ago.
I forgot my self built XXL fire poker was there .
And too a gate the wood was piled on. Both tool and gate well below the surface already.

 

[n2mini]

Only on oak island does the finding of common items such as axe heads trigger someone to state, “that’s proof of a fabulous treasure”.

No one on this page has even mentioned treasure..

 

[Armchair detective]

Well yeah they did but I don't see the connection.

Let's talk about axe heads on an island.
Does a logging operation make sense?
When the mainland is more convenient and easier to transport logs from the job site?
Can you use axe heads for anything BUT chopping wood?
Maybe reading too much into this, but 6 ft apart seems a careless pole - maybe chucked into snow?

 

[Upnorth42]

Where I live (Nova Scotia) axe heads are a common find. I have found 3 in one day. I have seen axe handles break and the head goes shooting off into the bushes. Might be difficult to find depending on conditions. Sometimes people put them down and forget exactly where. When I was about 7 years old my father was showing me how to throw an axe. We lost it. I recently found it after it was missing for over 50 years.

 

[DizzyDigger]

Seems to me that some 200 years back an ax head would be a vital tool to have. Did people lose them? Sure, 'cause folks detecting find them all the time. Still, it was a critical tool and losing the only one you had could be a devastating loss.

No ax means no chopping down trees, no splitting firewood to fit the woodstove, and even still today a hatchet/ax is a critical tool on the trapline.

I've got one ax that my father gave me, and it's probably had four or five different handles over the past 50 years; it's still sharp and useful today.

Don't people fix things anymore?

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Ya know. People 200 years ago used to make thier own handles out of wood.
Was there wood on the island 200 years ago?

Yes and no to that. An ax handle made of freshly cut wood could be a dangerous thing when the wood ages, dries out and shrinks about 6% to 8%. Older ax heads were tapered in the socket for this reason. Didn't see the episode so I don't know if therse were. Newer heads are pretty much parallel.

 

[releventchair]

Yes and no to that. An ax handle made of freshly cut wood could be a dangerous thing when the wood ages, dries out and shrinks about 6% to 8%. Older ax heads were tapered in the socket for this reason. Didn't see the episode so I don't know if therse were. Newer heads are pretty much parallel.

I didn't state green wood.

More so a reason to find two heads awaiting handles.
A stave being dried in the meantime. ends waxed or painted.
Or ye olde kiln awaiting a run.

Or it depends on the islands occupation and established trades and or ships contents.
Most carpenters would want a variety of seasoned ready to use material stashed given the option. Besides those hiring him/them wanting make work projects going on when repairs were not pending.

A guy the other day somewhere showed two heads chained quite loosely (to keep them together?)and used them to level his flat bottomed(nonspider/legged) cast iron cookware.

 

[pepperj]

This is a new/old puzzle.
When detecting at the top of the swamp, Gary Drayden found two axe heads within 6 ft of each other with broken off handles?
Their sizes were between hatchet and axe.
It strikes me that tools are hard to make, so why would someone just abandon these? Why not just stop chopping and fix the tool? And who carries around 3 hatchets anyway?

Since you brought up this query, why not provide a snippet screen shot of the fore mentioned hatchet/axe heads?

This would really help clarify the possible age, type, hand forged, trade, all that good stuff.

Now for loosing an axe-snow is a possible reason.
Ever work in heavy snow, tree cutting, slashing?

The annual snow fall for the area during the time of loss would probably would have been greater than any recent recorded annual snowfall. Just for Halifax which isn't too far away has had up to over 400 cm or 13.4 ft in the last decade.
I've dropped hammers, sledges, axes in -2ft of snow and it has been a challenge to recover them.

 

[glass half fool]

Those are the questions that keep me digging I agree complexly that with tools being difficult to make you would expect people tp do what needs to be done to keep then in use But if we hove no questions there would be no mystery to what we are hoping to find