🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Old nails?

[FloraZahn]

Old nails in a previously unlooked at site on an old farm. If may have been site of old ice house. Sits on a ridge above a creek.
One is bent at the end. Rectangular shape with apparently something wrapped. I cleaned a bit of rust.

 

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[MisterHelix]

Nails can be useful in roughly dating a site. Rectangular shanks put them in a certain era. Colonial era shanks are typically square. Modern shanks typically round.

There’s a lot more to it but I don’t know the rest offhand.

Using Nails to Date a Site - Wrought Nails, Cut Nails and Others

Nails are a fantastic way to determine the age of a site you plan to metal detect. This guide can give you some ideas of your site's history.

www.detecting.us

 

[releventchair]

Could be horse or ox shoe nails.

 

[Midden-marauder]

Definitely older nails, this little link provides the best info on the subject I've found, there's some nuances to dating nails, shape and direction of splitting or cracking are primary markers....

Key to Age of Antique Metal Nails

Key to Age & History of Antique Metal Nails: Easy questions help form a guess at the plausible age of various types of antique & modern nails, including wood treenails, hand-wrought nails, cut nails, wire nails.

inspectapedia.com

 

[villagenut]

They sure are some sparkly nails for sure....

 

[Almy]

Neither appears to be a nail for wood. Note the spade point on one and the lack of a head on the other. The one with the spade point has a head that has been beaten causing it to split and mis-shape. A rosehead nail, which this one looks like, normally has a neat, symmetrical head with 3 or 4 indentations in its top where the person forming the head on a hole in an anvil hit the nail head to spread it out. The one with the head seems too long for a horseshoe nail. I'd guess they are both special purpose ones made by a blacksmith. They suggest to me an old site.

 

[MisterHelix]

Could be horse or ox shoe nails.

All the Horseshoe nails I find are short and curved and tapered. Here’s one that cleaned up pretty nice.

 

[Huntingintn]

Hello, I was wondering if anyone knows what kind of nail, spike, or whatever it is used for? It is 1/4 x 1/4 x 4. I removed all the rust looking for something to identify by. Thanks for any help.