Old Nails / Spikes

[jaybird10e]

Found these nails / spikes in the lake nearby where i have been finding things from the late 1800's, early 1900's. Not sure how old these are and what type of construction they were typically used for. ...or if they were hand forged. Thanks for the input.

 

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[Tony in SC]

Sizes would help a lot. Tony

 

[villagenut]

His ruler indicates about six inches in length. They appear to be old hand forged spikes with some rose heads. The top one looks more like a square nail, machine made but hard to tell from this side of the screen. BTW how big is this lake? And Did you clean and preserve these, they look real good.

 

[jaybird10e]

His ruler indicates about six inches in length. They appear to be old hand forged spikes with some rose heads. The top one looks more like a square nail, machine made but hard to tell from this side of the screen. BTW how big is this lake? And Did you clean and preserve these, they look real good.

I cleaned them up with a wire wheel on my angle grinder...this may be a no no but the didn't look very good with all of the thick corosion.

From Wikipedia:
Lake Coeur d'Alene is a natural lake in northern Idaho, in the northwest United States. Its northern end is in the city of Coeur d'Alene. It spans 25 miles (40 km) in length and ranges from 1 to 3 miles (5 km) wide with over 109 miles (175 km) of shoreline.

 

[NOLA_Ken]

They are definitely old, Machine cut nails started coming on the scene around 1800 and gradually replaced the "rose head" type, but being in Idaho I would imagine that hand forged nails were still common well after then.

Being found near a lake they could have been used to build a dock, a boat, or they could be from a home site. Are you finding other relics in the same area? That could help narrow it down

 

[sutphin]

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[jaybird10e]

They are definitely old, Machine cut nails started coming on the scene around 1800 and gradually replaced the "rose head" type, but being in Idaho I would imagine that hand forged nails were still common well after then.

Being found near a lake they could have been used to build a dock, a boat, or they could be from a home site. Are you finding other relics in the same area? That could help narrow it down

Yes, I am finding other relics and coins. I found two v-nickels recently (1903 and date unknown)...and old bullets. The area had n old military fort in 1879 and also a mill nearby.