Hand forged nails...

[Mike Henderson]

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.

To me, colonial period would be from the first North American colonies to 1776 - pre-industrial revolution.

I'm going from memory here, but I recall reading in the same book that the author said that a machine was invented to make nails - a human powered machine. No details given - it was just a short sentence that led into more of a discussion of powered machines, leading eventually to wire nails.

I got interested in how iron and steel was made back in the pre-Bessemer days (the period before about 1885-1890 when the Bessemer process really started being used) which led me to some books, one of which is this one, "The Epic of Steel" - certainly not the best book on the subject. Although not a good technical book on iron and steel (not that much discussion on the chemical reactions), a really good book on the history of the industry is "A Nation of Steel" by Thomas J. Misa. It's US centric but very interesting.
A more technical book and one with a UK focus is "Steelmaking before Bessemer" by K.C. Barraclough. There are two volumes: the first on making blister steel and the second on crucible steel. These two volumes are essentially unavailable so you'll have to get them from the library. Barraclough has a couple of other books on the history of the iron and steel industry but I haven't obtained them yet. Another good book (American focus) is "American Iron 1607-1900" by Robert B. Gordon.

It is very interesting to read about those days and to understand that iron and steel were not always as cheap nor as "good" as it is today. Good steel, which meant crucible steel, was so expensive that they didn't use much of it, which is why we see laminated cutting tools from those days. BTW, when you see the words "cast steel" that means crucible steel.

Please keep posting your work. It's extremely interesting to learn more about how things were done prior to the industrial revolution.

Mike