Magnet fisherman pulls World War 1 bayonet out of the canal
Calum Black landed quite the catch with his friends in the canal near Craiglockart, when he pulled in what is believed to be a WW1 US bayonet from the water.
Calum, who has been magnet fishing for around two years, was live on TikTok at the time.
He said: "At first, I thought it was a mini-sword thing, but once I had a proper look at it, I went: ‘that’s a bayonet’”.
Once Calum got home, he started doing research into the bayonet, explaining: “I stuck it on Facebook, where other people helped to identify it”.
Calum has pulled many items out of the water since he started magnet-fishing, including stolen property, bullets and grenades.
In 2019, he even found an IED, which resulted in a bomb squad from Rosyth Naval Base being called out to safely transport the bomb and detonate it safely.
Though he has said the bayonet was the most impressive thing he’s ever found, he doesn’t intend to keep the it and wants to donate it to a museum if possible.
However, Calum has said that he is curious about the history of the bayonet, and said: “I wonder what’s the story behind it”.
He is the admin of a Facebook Group, Magnetic fishing in Edinburgh, which started off with only 3 members, but now has 7.1K dedicated followers.
In 2020, he spoke to Edinburgh Evening News about magnet-fishing, and said: “I enjoy it because you never know what you are going to find, that’s what makes it exciting”.