My best nail find to date

[Muddyhandz]

Not expecting a lot of traffic when the title has the words "best nail" in it but after this many years of detecting, it's all about unique finds for me.
I'm doing good in the gold, silver and relic department this year so far but my first post in long time will be about a nail. Lol.

Now most times I will be discriminating nails out but at really old sites with nice soil conditions, I love adding nice rose head nails to the collection and at fur trade sites, sometimes nails have been utilized into fish hooks, awls, or flattened as a makeshift screw driver to work on flint locks, etc.

At mid-19th century sites I'm more selective on ferrous targets but I will pick up a few things laying on the surface like these large nails right here.....


One measures at 8 and the other at 6 inches long. I see these often but thought I would take a couple better examples home last year.

The other day, I found one of those 8 inch nails that had been made into something pretty sweet.....



This is how it looked before I did a light cleaning on it.



Never would I imagine finding such a cool hammer (cobbler?) with the handle being made from a nail.



This would have been the 8 inch spike that lost an inch from hammering the tip here....









I actually used a similar cobbler hammer to tap out the rust on this nail hammer but it's not as cool.
I think I'll have to start using my "nail hammer" from now on!
Re-purpose a re-purposed find!

 

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[Mud Hut]

Very cool! I love it!

 

[VTColonialDigger]

Now that's a really cool find!!

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

With that chisel tip, I’d tend to call those spikes.

Neat relic hammer. Those are the best types of finds.

 

[chriskaroet]

any tips regarding where i could find such burried things :'D

 

[Muddyhandz]

IMAUDIGGER, you nailed it! Lol. I agree, it's technically a spike.

chriskaroet, I found this at a site that produced a lot of finds from the early to late 1800's that is cultivated every year.
Plowed fields are excellent places to easily dig up targets. After most of the non-ferrous targets are plucked out, I tend to try out some larger ferrous signals.
Most iron targets are junk (to me) but the odd time a nice axe, tool, gun parts, etc. come into the keeper pile.
If it's an early site then I'll dig more iron signals. The hand forged implements are higher in quality and can come out nice.
Make sure you're enjoying what you're doing otherwise, dig the better signals.
Happy hunting!

 

[pa plateau hiker]

They are cribbing spikes, used to connect logs/lumber together. I have found the majority of my cribbing spikes along old logging RR grades where they made temporary bridges over springs or small streams.

 

[Joe-Dirt]

That’s awesome!!!!

 

[RustyGold]

Looks like you “nailed” it!

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Awesome personal relic recovery!

 

[claypile]

....and you nailed it good job man!

 

[Brian C.]

Awesome looking relic.

 

[caretaker]

I love digging hand made nails, I just dug one last weekend and it was copper, I keep it too, nice find

 

[Rege-PA]

That little hammer is pretty sweet! The handle may have been wrapped with leather or cloth to make it more comfortable to use......IMHO

 

[Bart@Big Boys Hobbies]

Very cool! Thanks for the post!

 

[vpone]

interesting finds

vp