My oldest find.

[PBrad]

I had today off so I was able to go out exploring some local areas. One of them was the site of an old college that was in operation from 1860-1885. All that is left now are just ruins. A chimney, a masonic corner stone, and a few partial walls. Didn't get many hits with the AT Pro as I am pretty sure it's been picked clean all these years as they're trying to preserve it. I found a few caps, an old tin can, and a square nail. I'm assuming that this nail is from the same time period from what I have read. My first relic?

 

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[villagenut]

A lot of these bent nails were due to them being driven into the wood material and if the tips protruded through both boards, the carpenters would clench them or bend them by purposely hammering them over to prevent pulling out. This is especially common when hunting a site that had the structure burn. The ground here will be littered with nails, some straight,and some clenched over. When the framing burned and then rotted into the Earth, the nails are left to be found by us today. In the old days nails were gathered from a newly burned structure and repurposed as they were easy pickings among the rubble. Those clenched nails were probably left behind as plenty of straight ones were plentiful.

 

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[pepperj]

Quick question. Today's modern cut nails can't be bent, they'll just break. Were they like that back in the day?

Have taken out thousands of square nails out of barn wood, some will snap easily when trying to pull them if they do I just uses a punch to knock them through. They'll bend to some degree also if they got bent in transport as i usually do the detailing at the shop. Detecting I've got lots of the curled end nails, so they must of hit something hard when being hammered through a board. Some of the cool looking ones I put off to the side for something I'm not sure of yet.

 

[Tejaas]

As I mentioned they are trying to preserve it and is a registered historical site.

And your detecting here?
Or on a permission property nearby?


~Tejaas~