Hand forged nails...

VERY cool, you can still buy nails like this here in Japan, usually on the larger size, I'd say "Spikes" rather than nails, as a lot of timber framing is still done.

I doubt the ones here are "Hand Forged" but maybe, in China.....:dunno:

I understand that they have a LOT more holding power than round, or wire nails.

Cheers!
 
I probly spelled it wrong :doh:

I was thinking of that outfit that sells (used to sell??) cut nails and stuff. I don't think any of theirs were forged though, other than some of the fancy heads.

The only nails I ever made were out of silver wire for a little box, but they were nowhere near as involved as your's.
 
I probly spelled it wrong :doh:

I was thinking of that outfit that sells (used to sell??) cut nails and stuff. I don't think any of theirs were forged though, other than some of the fancy heads.

The only nails I ever made were out of silver wire for a little box, but they were nowhere near as involved as your's.

That could be Van Dyke's. They sell old-style nails. They also sell clavos. I'm not sure what a clavos is supposed to be. :huh: But they look like nail heads with short shanks that are used just for decorative effect. I have some square cuts I bought, forgot where, that I use on occasion. But they are soft and don't take rusting/blueing treatments well. Also horseshoe nails are square cut. But why buy when you can spend hours slaving over a hot fire and come up with a small handful for a days work? ;)
 
Cut nails, factory made, are awesome for attaching PT wood to concrete.
They work so much better than the round concrete nails.
The round ones always bent on me before I could get them drove all the way in.
The cut nails go right on in.

Now we have the new PT wood, so I don't know if the cut nails would corrode or not.
 
This is them: http://www.tremontnail.com/
Looks like all cut nails with some forging for rose heads and such.

Cut nails should be way hard, like Steve's talking about. Great for holding molding to adobe too, leastwise if it's got a good hard plaster on it :D

Clavo is spanish for nail, them things VanDykes and others sell are decorative to give stuff a nice ole spanish colonial look. Jean even put some on our door.
 
Steve, wouldn't it be better to use screws in concrete? Unless one was restoring an old project, but screws/lag-bolts/epoxied-bolts all seem to work better, in my experience with decking, but I've never nailed it to concrete...



Yes. Screws, concrete J bolts, are way better.

Mainly where we used cut nails was in new houses with basements.
Inner walls in the basement. Everything that touched concrete had to be PT wood. Just a cut nail between every other stud was sufficent
 
That looks great, Alan. I remember reading something a while back about how many nails an experienced blacksmith could make in a day but I don't remember the number now. It wasn't a lot. I expect nails were pretty expensive back before they were machine made.

Mike

[added data] I found that book - it's called "The Epic of Steel" by Douglas Alan Fisher. On page 95, under the section of "Nails and Nailmaking" he says "A good worker could make as many as 2,000 small nails a day." This refers to colonial time, pre 1776. Working 10 hours per day, that's over 3 nails per minute (average) which seems pretty high to me. Even at 12 hours per day, that's a bit less than 3 nails per minute, average.
 
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Alan - I don't think they're talking about tapered nails. In reading the text, he says that they took a strip of iron and then cut it and put a head on each piece. My guess is that these were more like finishing nails - straight sided and with a small head on them. He indicates that someone else made the strips and sold it to nail makers.

But it's possible that his data are wrong - he doesn't give any source for that number so I think it's squishy. I don't see any way that tapered nails could be made that fast (from your description of what has to be done).

Mike
 
I bought some hand forged nails at a second hand junk shop near my house just like the ones you made Allan. However they were made in Vietnam. I have never been to Vietnam but I have read they still use a lot of hand tools in their furniture making. The seller had about 20-30 in a bowl and I bought them all. Still have 'em. Waiting for that special project to use 'em ;). Those are very nicely done.
 
Mike,

Been thinking about this. I 'spose if you were to use flat stock, and a large hot chisel, you could cut the angled tapers off a piece of flat stock, then just pound the nail head.

I'm having a hard time wondering how they would automate things to speed it up that quickly.

When they say colonial period, I am thinking from the 1700s-1800s. I know that steam powered machinery did appear during the 1800s, that could have facilitated cutting the steel nails on powered machinery, but doesn't the colonial period denote pre-industrial-revolution?

Some of this history facinates me.

Generally, the colonial period is American history up to the Revolution. Newcomers to these shores made homes, or "colonies". Others call the post-Revolution to the Civil War the colonial period. I disagree with that completely. Very often, anything 'old' and even into the early 1900's is called 'colonial' but this is incorrect.
If you want to pick nits on this (and I do ;) ), it is America pre 1776. But crafts, like blacksmithing were necessary way into the 20th century. Not everyone had access to factory made stuff or could not afford them.
Your nails represent a wide era and not a specific time.
 
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