does anyone save old handmade nails

[jrwill56]

just wondering: people save all kinds of things.

 

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[thrillathahunt]

I save old unused square nails that I find.

 

[stefen]

Why save them when new ones are still available from some hardware and lumber suppliers?

I've have had a box in my wood shop for maybe 20 or so years...come in right handy as a door stop.

Just my opinion of why not to save nails...now, belly-button fuzz is another thing that's actually worth saving.

 

[bbqbull]

Isnt their a difference between handmade nails and the square cut nails you buy today?
The modern square cut nails are extreemely hard and are made to nail furring strips to concrete blocks.

 

[stefen]

Good question.

The nails I have are made (actually handmade) to replicate the old handmade nails...used for replacements...will rust and age quickly...

 

[R AND R]

I've got some I dug at CW campsites that are as clean and strong as the day they were made! Hey I'm a Fisher guy! . of course I'm gonna keep nails! lol. Sometimes they look new after being in the ground for 146 years, it's strange. I wish my one enfield socketed bayonet looked as good, just about rusted into nothing. I also have a "horse" pistol ramrod that was bent into a pot hook that's clean as a pin still has the end and the cup on the end for ramming the ball down the barrel. Poss. Heated iron? lasts longer?

 

[Green1]

I keep mine.. there's 3 nice ones displayed with my older relics...

 

[Lowbatts]

Kept a few I found from a trading site dated to the 1840's. Large spill by the way the find looked.

 

[SHERMANVILLE ILLINOIS]

jrwill56,
have some.......here and there

Sure, think lots of folks keep them.

Someone somewhere keeps everything you can think of.

have a good un.................
SHERMANVILLE

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

HIO Common down here in Mexico. Because of the tip being square it tends to cut through the fibre of the wood and has a far less tendency to split the wood.

Don Jose de La mancha +

 

[COUNTRY GIRL]

Absolutely! The hand forged nail has been around since Biblical times, and has a facinating history. The nail helps to date your site, so why not keep them?

The cut nail made its appearance in the mid-1700's. For example, Thomas Jefferson established a nail factory at his Monticello plantation as a way to increase his farm income. His nail factory made both hand-forged and cut nails. It would not be until the middle-1800's that cut nails began dominating the marketplace. Cut nails are not actually "cut"--they are sheared from steel plate that is the thickness of the nail shank. Although routinely referred to as "square nails", the cutting machine tapers the nail shank as it is sheared from the steel plate. A second machine forms the head of a cut nail. The square nails in the above photograph are made in this manner. With the hand-forged nail, all four sides are tapered. With the cut nail, two sides are parallel because they represent the thickness of the plate they were sheared from.

Cut nails could be manufactured much faster than hand-forged nails. As the process was mechanized, the cost per nail was less. However, cut nail factories employed operators and attendants for each machine so the process was still labor-intensive. The noise in those mills was deafening as well. Cut nails had their heyday from about 1820 (development of the Type B nail) to 1910, the advent of the wire nail.

 

[Likely Guy]

During the summer months I'm usually employed restoring a local ghost town and cut nails are invaluable to the process. Maybe enquire locally (historical societies, heritage sites, etc.) Just a thought.

 

[Montana Jim]

http://www.uvm.edu/histpres/203/nails.html

http://www.appaltree.net/aba/nails.htm

 

[relichunters]

I save mine

 

[liftloop]

logcabin spike's i'll save.

 

[pookie-princess of rust]

most of them i get rid of, tho a few i have kept...