hand forged nails

[gc45]

When buying our farm there was an old barn and small old house. The house was pretty much junk so I burned it only to find some old nails later that were rough looking and also square. The barn was much better so I re-roofed everything, replacing some boards also the doors and it still stands today on it's rock foundation, although I have re-roofed it twice now and just use it for firewood storage. No idea of when this place was first built maybe 1880's as I'm told settlers arrived about then but who knows?. I built a log house here in 1975 and still live there but for the taxes I would die here too but geez these Liberals are running many off these days.

[ShooterAZ]

Hand forged nails and modern cut nails are not the same, as has been previously mentioned. Modern cut nails are still being produced to this day and are seriously hardened, and they are commonly used to fasten wood products to concrete or masonry. I am a metal detectorist, and true hand forged nails are usually dated to pre-1900's era. Often times we search for an "iron patch" in known frontier spots around my location, and sometimes it results in locating a house that has burned down. The iron patches can be a bust or a boom, because there is usually a ton of other metal trash. We have found a lot of really good things though at some of these spots, so it pays to spend a lot more time searching the area.

[Ithaca Gunner]

Not all square or ''cut'' nails were hand forged, there were factories making them at least 30 years prior to the American Civil War. One such factory existed along the Conodoguinet Creek in what is now East Pennsboro Township, across the Susquehanna river from Harrisburg, PA. I believe the factory began in 1831 and produced cut nails into the early 20th century when it closed and was torn down in 1911.

I visited the site before it was cleaned up and preserved as a historical site, little remained other than some masonary arches and the aquaduct in the creek. One thing of interest was the nails in the creek, you could pull out nails by the handfull! I also found a Civil War Enfield bayonet in the mud along where the nails were, (Ft. Washington was on the heights on the opposite side of the creek to defend Harrisburg during Lee's invasion of PA in 1863).

Here's a link to the nail works.


https://eastpennhistory.org/2017/05/...rg-nail-works/

[MaryB]

When we tore down the barn at my grandparents old farm we ran into a ton of hand forged nails. Barn was built in the early 1800's as was part of the house that ended up being the kitchen. When we tore the house apart we were careful to tear it down to the kitchen area then proceeded by hand to uncover the original log cabin that was salvaged and moved to my parents lake lot and reassembled as a bunk house. My sister has pics of all that.

When we took the cabin apart I came across a $20 gold piece that grandpa told me to keep as good luck. He said it was placed there as an emergency stash when the cabin was built and they lost track of which log it was set into a slot that had chinking packed into it, we were picking out all the chinking when I found it. His grandpa had put it in the wall, told him about it when he was a young kid then everyone forgot about where it was. Just that there was an ounce of gold in one of the walls.

Doorway from the kitchen to the living room was 2' thick! Had a single piece of oak covering the log ends that was salvaged and turned into the bar top in my parents lake home 24" wide and 2" thick and 80" tall and hard as a rock! Removed 10 layers of paint to expose this gorgeous piece of oak slab that was hand sanded then sealed with 6 layers of epoxy to give it that deep finish... when thelake house sold my older sister got the bar for her basement.

[Teddy (punchie)]

Working away from the house or barn at the farm it's a long walk 3/8's of mile from down over the hill. We save the nails for reuse and also no to lay on the ground for the animals to eat. We save all the metal and trash it after we are done. Plus cut nails or masonry nails are one thing Double headed nail for porcelain insulators are also rough to find.

[crandall crank]

From the legends that I have heard. If a pioneer family was moving West, they would build a small cabin or shed for protection from the elements. After a season or two, they would burn the structure and salvage the hardware, such as; nails, screws, hinges, etc. The would proceed West and repeat the process until they came to an area they found desirable.

[Bazoo]

This is a really interesting discussion. Thanks all for sharing your stories. Mary, I'd like to see pictures of that old cabin. And of the $20 gold piece, that's a real neat story. So it was your grandpa's grandpa. Man that must have been a heck of an investment back at that time.

[barnetmill]

I have never seen it, but have been told of really old homes that were put together with wooden pegs. Now days some use live oak for wooden pegs, but in the past black locust was favored.

A treenail, also trenail, trennel, or trunnel, is a wooden peg, pin, or dowel used to fasten pieces of wood together, especially in timber frames, covered bridges, wooden shipbuilding and boat building.[1] It is driven into a hole bored through two (or more) pieces of structural wood (mortise and tenon).
The use of wood as a tenon can be traced back over 7,000 years, as archaeologist have found traces of wood nails in the excavation of early Germanic sites.[2] Trenails are extremely economical and readily available, making them a common early building material.[3] Black Locust is a favorite wood when making trunnels in shipbuilding in North America[4][5] and English Oak in Europe[6][7] due to their strength and rot resistance, while red oak is typical in buildings. Traditionally treenails and pegs were made by splitting bolts of wood with a froe and shaping them with a drawknife on a shaving horse.

[Bazoo]

I've heard of pegged construction in timber framing, but not in any other methods. I know that a dry square or octagonal peg, in a round hole in slightly green wood, will make a very tight joint as the wood drys.

[barnetmill]

I've heard of pegged construction in timber framing, but not in any other methods. I know that a dry square or octagonal peg, in a round hole in slightly green wood, will make a very tight joint as the wood drys.

A peg usually needs to go in predrilled hole is my understanding and so steel nails are just so much faster.

[Bazoo]

A peg usually needs to go in predrilled hole is my understanding and so steel nails are just so much faster.

You're quite astute.

[MaryB]

This is a really interesting discussion. Thanks all for sharing your stories. Mary, I'd like to see pictures of that old cabin. And of the $20 gold piece, that's a real neat story. So it was your grandpa's grandpa. Man that must have been a heck of an investment back at that time.

I don't have any pics of the cabin... mom sold the lake house when dad died, way more upkeep than she could handle... Just your typical 16'x16' single room log cabin... gold piece is in my safe deposit box... small local bank so not worried about the bank stealing it.

The farm was started as the first dairy farm in a 3 county area, when dad's side of the family came here from Germany they stopped in Chicago for 10 years and opened a butcher shop. Made a bunch of money then moved west. 10 head of dairy cattle in tow. They always had steers every year to sell off so a $20 gold piece was a lot of money but not a massive amount for them.

Cousins emigrated 10 years after they broke virgin prairie and they got the land across the road from them. They started a hog farm... being cousins they did a lot of back and forth trading etc. Those cousins now own what was my grandparents farm and raise 1,000 hogs a year! I stop and visit them now and then, it is about 45 miles from me.

I have lived my entire life in a 60 mile radius of where I was born!

[country gent]

I have helped repair the old barns constructed with doweled mortise and tenons. When the joints set and dry they are very tight. We had several drill with the side webs sharpened for removing them. Otherwise drilling out the old pin to repair you would get partway thru the pin collapses and pinches the drill locking it up.

I built workbenches and other things using doweled mortise and tenon joints. When done right they are stronger and sturdier than nails or screw joints and dont loosen up as easy. The holes werent just drilled thru. the holes were Drilled so when the dowel was driven in it pulled the joint tight in to the tenons shoulders locking it up.

[Bigslug]

From the legends that I have heard. If a pioneer family was moving West, they would build a small cabin or shed for protection from the elements. After a season or two, they would burn the structure and salvage the hardware, such as; nails, screws, hinges, etc. The would proceed West and repeat the process until they came to an area they found desirable.

I've heard something along those lines too - like they'd torch the original homestead to extract the nails before heading West.

Makes me wonder though: what was the expectation for hardness/heat treating for the useable product and what would a house fire do to that?

[HWooldridge]

I've heard something along those lines too - like they'd torch the original homestead to extract the nails before heading West.

Makes me wonder though: what was the expectation for hardness/heat treating for the useable product and what would a house fire do to that?

Wrought iron doesn’t gain or lose anything in a house fire - so it wouldn’t have made any difference.

[beemer]

I knew a guy that tore down old cabins and barns to sell the logs. He usually removed the roofing and strips and pulled the rafters off with his 4wd pickup. He found one with pegged roof framing but never gave it a thought. He wrapped a cable around the gable end and his hitch ball, left his bumper in the driveway.

[Paper Puncher]

One of the duties of an apprentice blacksmith was making nails. I can remember talking to an old German blacksmith who apprenticed around 1900. He said one of the first things you learn to make was a nail. I can't remember if he said they still sold them or if it was just tradition by that time.

[10x]

My grandfather was a master blacksmith. He would make nails in his spare time in the winter.
We had tobacco cans full of hand forged nails on the shelves in his shop in the 1950s.
After dad sold the horses he farmed with, I had two tobacco cans full of hand forged horse shoe nails. I spent many afternoons with a hammer driving these nails into the wooden workbench when i was 4 or 5 years old. One of the few foolish things I regret doing as a child.

[waksupi]

I worked on a restoration project of an old Hudson's Bay trading post. Lots of old forged nails. Some were being discarded, so I saved a bunch, and put them on Ebay, telling where they came from. I was amazed at how much some paid for Hudson's Bay memorabilia.