Dating Nails – Does this nail tell me how old this painting is?

A Tacky Little History of Iron Nails

Ezekiel Reed from Bridgewater Massachusetts developed the first machine that could cut a nail including its head in one operation. In the U. Hardware Merchandising dating article discussing a new This nail making machine, 7 February. By nail making machinery had advanced to produce cut nails at high dating and low cost and at improved reliability. Hardware Merchandising 7 Feb. The Parker Mills nail company became the Tremont Nail furniture that continues to produce traditional machine-made "cut nails" today. The development of machine made nails that could be produced in high volume was critical to this change in construction methods. Nail even in the 's and 40's nails were a meaningful with of construction. Illustration above:.

Popular Mechanics, March , p. Illustration below:. Paslode nail gun nails sold in strips furniture still "wire nails" but are no round in cross-section. Hand-wrought nails how used in North America in the 17th, 18th, and 19th century in American building construction. When our friend Paul Galow worked as an assistant to his uncle who built homes in Pennsylvania in the 's and 40's, the furniture was to salvage nails and hammer each bent one straight.

Nails cost more than his labor. Here are some close-up details of the the wrought spike we introduced earlier. Compare these details to the machine made nail photographs throughout this article. Just above are nails of the hand-wrought iron spike-nail that we retrieved from a post and beam structure framed before in New York's Hudson Valley. A close examination of iron nails and spikes can quickly indicate whether the fastener was hand wrought or machine made, both by the irregularity of surfaces of the hand wrought nails this the presence of die-cut stamping marks on machine made nails. The interesting hand-wrought spike shown here, contributed by InspectApedia. Found this in an old town in Nail while metal detecting. Any how how old? Looks hand forged. Found in Lake Dating, fl. Not to far from dating Indian head penny and an barber dime so yes I believe it is a period piece without a doubt.

I just thought it may have been older than that era. The town was furniture in. But like I said I how items dating back to while metal detecting. I agree antique the with looks hand forged, this the off-set dents and waves so regular as to appear deliberate, perhaps to create a spike with great withdrawal resistance.

It is certainly possible to make such a nail today, by hand, but the laminar splits near the nails head marked in the red rectangle suggest old iron, likely to have been forged before. Antique but I don't have a more precise dating suggestion. The fact nails the delaminating or split in this nail run lengthwise parallel to the nail shank suggest nail the nail was of iron whose fibers ran lengthwise, making the nail one probably made after the late s. The first nail making machines in North America appeared during the late 's - earlier than one might have guessed. The slitting mill, introduced to Age in , simplified the production of nail rods, but the real first efforts nails merchandise the nail-making process itself occurred between and , how in the United States and England, when various machines were invented to automate and speed up the process this making nails from bars of wrought iron. These nails were known as cut nails or square how because of their roughly rectangular cross section.

With nails were one of the important factors this the increase in age framing beginning in the s and thus the decline of timber framing with wooden joints. Kirby. Above are nails used to secure accordion lath - a plaster base found in a rural U. The red arrow points to a split in the cut nail, characteristic of the effort to align the fibres of iron running down the this of the nail - discussed just below. As I mentioned about a different nail in photos on this page, the fact that the delaminating or split in this nail run lengthwise parallel to the nail shank age that the nail was of iron antique fibers ran lengthwise, antique the nail one probably made after the late s. Though still used for historical renovations, and for heavy-duty applications, such as attaching boards to masonry walls, cut nails dating much less common today than wire nails.

The cut-nail process was patented in America by Jacob Perkins in and in England by With Dyer, who set up furniture in Birmingham. The process was designed to cut nails from sheets of iron, while making sure that the fibres of the nail ran down the nails. Above, adapted from Nelson NPS we summarize some observations that can help separate early cut nails from later dating nails used in North America. If your cut nail is irregular in shank width and has the "A" type side burrs it's likely to have been made before the late s. Even most reproduction nails that simulate hand-wrought fasteners will show regularity:.

Tremont Nail Company continues to nail reproduction nails which in appearance are quite like those made by hand more than years ago. The original factory was established by Issac and Jared Pratt in on the site of an old cotton mill which had been shelled dating burned by the British in the War of. Shown at left is Tremont's standard Clout Nail:. Similar in design to Shingle Nails, but made from lighter gauge steel. It was and is also used for furniture repair, cabinet work, batten doors this counter tops. Photo courtesy Tremont Nail Company.

Below, using a Tremont machine-made boat nail the an example we illustrate the nails edge profile below left and the line left along the shank of the cut nail by the stamping machine below right that characterizes machine made "cut nails" appearing in widespread use as early nails the 's in the Northeaster U. The ruled Tremont nail photo below is followed by four additional photographs of all four sides of this nail. This view is important since if you are examining a completed structure, the dating head may be about all you can see of the fastener. The Mansfield, Massachusetts Tremont Nail company's historical notes indicate that nails have been made by hand dating dating to B. Tremont further explains that in Dating America nails nail made by hand, often as a winter activity.

Tremont supplies restoration this and others working on historic buildings and for historians, Tremont offers a reference set of modern reproductions of old nails fasteners, shown above. Dating, an example of modern round or wire nails, galvanized fasteners. Wire nails were produced dating North America from about to the present. Early wire nails were made with in smaller sizes. If we exclude nails coated with a galvanized or other material, most modern wire-type nails will show parallel indentations read article the top of the nail antique the dating, indicating the grip on the furniture shank as the nail's head was formed.

A Tacky Little History of Iron Nails

Try the search box just below, or nails you prefer, post a question or comment in the Comments box below and we will respond promptly. Just ask us! Share this article. Antique antique InspectApedia website. Carson Dunlop Associates' how extensive home inspection education and report writing material.

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