How to identify antique & modern reproductions of cut nails.

This article includes an identification key to specific types & dimensions of cut nails, followed with examples and description of hand-wrought heads, derived from Nelson and other historical researchers of nails and fasteners and using additional nail identification key photos based on Tremont Nail Co.'s., History of Cut Nails in America, cited in detail here.

This article series describes and illustrates antique & modern hardware: door knobs, latches, hinges, window latches, hardware, nails & screws can help determine a building's age by noting how those parts were fabricated: by hand, by machine, by later generations of machine.

Antique & Reproduction Nail Identification Key

On this page we illustrate and help identify cut nails of various types. The use of nails and their features are also factors in guessing their age.

[Click to enlarge any image]

What is a "Cut Nail"?

Cut nails are metal nails, usually iron, occasionally brass or bronze, that were "cut" from a large flat rectangular metal plate by using a huge slicing blade that could cut red hot metal. By "wiggling" the nail plate from side to side as it was fed into the shear or cutting tool the result was a tapered nail blank that virtually eliminated the need for hand-forged nail pointing.

The earliest cut nails cut from blanks were made using a hand operated cutting machine and the nail heads then forged by hand.

Later inventions included a heading die that could form the head on a cut nail by an additional machine step.

Modern cut nails are made by powered machines that produce cut nails at much larger volume and greater speed.

Is it a Cut Nail & How Old Is It?

• The shape of a nail shank can help distinguish just how it was cut - a fact that helps determine its age as we will explain in more detail.
• The location of burrs on edges of the cut nail shanks tell us how it was cut and on what type of machine - additional factors in understanding the nail's age.
• The shape and type of head on the cut nail and the presence or absence of grip-marks on the nail shank below the head can also help define the nail's production methods and age.
• The regularity of cut nails will be greater in any group found than hand-forged nails, as they're made using machinery. However the oldest cut nails, cut by hand from blanks, may vary in width and shank angle as the fabricator may not have shifted the blank an identical amount during each individual nail cutting operation. The shank lengths, however will be very similar, varying only insofar as hand-forged heads on cut nails may vary.
• Distinguish from cut nails: of course your nail sample might not even be a cut nail. If it's hand-forged it may be considerably older, though there are also modern reproductions of hand-forged nails.
  
  Our separate discussion of hand-forged nails
  
  at NAIL ID & AGE: HAND FORGED NAILS can help you further distinguish between cut-nails and their older ancestors that were forged by hand - hand-forged nails.

If your question is just about the age of an old nail or spike, see the key found

at NAIL AGE DETERMINATION KEY but remember that knowing the type of nail also helps identify its historic context or use and thus is also a clue to its age.

For a chronological history of types of nails from earliest time

see NAILS, AGE & HISTORY

Article Contents

• TYPES of CUT NAILS
• FIRST NAIL MAKING MACHINES
• REPRODUCTIONS of ANTIQUE CUT NAILS
• TREMONT CUT NAIL EXAMPLES

What are the Types of Cut Nails?

Above, excerpted and annotated from Tremont's panel of antique cut nails produced in America, we include some example cut nail dimensions.

[Click to enlarge any image]

Above the Tremont company illustrates, in order left to right, cut nails identified as

• Spike (3 1/4")
• Headless Foundry nail (3 1/2")
• Sheathing nail (3 1/16")
• Firedoor Clinch nail (2 1/2")
• Finish nail (2")
• Flooring nail (2 1/4")
• Clinch nail with rosebud head (2 1/2")
• Wrought Head nail (2 1/4")
• Common siding nail (2 1/2")
• Masonry nail (2 1/2" to 2 5/8")

You can obtain the lengths of other nails in this key by comparing the others with those whose lengths we've indicated.

Watch out: the lengths of nails, both hand wrought and cut, may indeed vary from these examples depending on who made them, where the nail was produced, and its exact production method.

Below, Tremont illustrates cut nails from left to right:

• Brad (1 1/8")
• Fine finishing nail (1 7/8")
• Shingle nail (1 5/8")
• Box nail (1 7/8")
• Clout nail (2 1/8")
• Common nail (1 1/2")
• Slating nail (1 5/8)
• Boat nail (2 5/8")
• Common nail with rosebud head (2 5/8")
• Hinge nail (1 3/4")

Tremont supplies restoration contractors and others working on historic buildings and for historians, Tremont offers a reference set of modern reproductions of old nails fasteners, shown above and below.

• Contact: Tremont Nail Company, P.O. Box 31, Mansfield, MA 02048, Tel: 800-835-0121, 508-339-4500 Website: http://www.tremontnail.com/

First Nail Making Machines in North America - 1790 "Cut Nails"

1772 - 1820: In North America early machine cut nails

Dating from 1590 in England, as the earliest report of nail production, the earliest reported cut nails in America are reported to have been cut, essentially by-hand, by Darrow in 1772 (Federal Writers Project 2013) with other authors crediting the Wilkinson brothers somewhat later, ca. 1783 (Benedict 1883).

The Wilkinson's realized that if the flat iron plate were simply shifted back and forth on an angle as each successive nail was cut from the blank, the nails would already be tapered and pointed, greatly speeding the process of making usable nails.

Nelson notes the first generation of cut nail manufacturing involved cutting all nails from common sides with heads hammered on as a separate production step.

The first nail making machines in North America appeared during the late 1700's - earlier than one might have guessed.

The slitting mill, introduced to England in 1590, simplified the production of nail rods, but the real first efforts to merchandise the nail-making process itself occurred between 1790 and 1820, initially in the United States and England, when various machines were invented to automate and speed up the process of making nails from bars of wrought iron.

These nails were known as cut nails or square nails because of their roughly rectangular cross section.

Cut nails were one of the important factors in the increase in balloon framing beginning in the 1830s and thus the decline of timber framing with wooden joints. (Kirby 1956)

Illustration above: a Read nail cutting machine. Nathan Read produced cut nails at their Salem Iron Factory beginning in 1798. Ezekiel Reed (un-related to Nathan) is credited with inventing the one-operation nail cutting machine in 1807. (Phillips 1993).

Jacob Perkins, inventor of a water-powered nail-cutting machine, began producing machine-made cut nails in 1794 and in 1795 received the first U.S. nail-cutting machine patent. His production combined an Ostrich nail cutting engine and a Vulcan nail-heading machine. (Phillips, 1993). The machinery skewed or "wiggled" the nail plate stock from side-to-side between cutting strokes, thus producting the tapered nail shanks that avoided having to hand-forge nail points or tapers.

Perkins' cut nails were formed to have a nail shank that is rectangular in cross setion with two tapering sides with burrs from the cutting blade appearing on diagonally-opposite edges. The nail head was flat, thin, irregular, and eccentric to the shank, and the nail shank just under the head was rounded and thinner than the rest of the shank - the effect of the vise that gripped the nail during the heading step. (Phillips, 1993).

A key contributions to nail production credited to Perkins was the production of nail plate stock that was sized big enough to permit cutting nails whose iron fibre or grain was longitudinal to the nail shank.

[B]ut in order to provide for this quality, also, in my said cut nails, when it is intended to make cut nails that is required to be clenched, I have the iron or other metal rolled into plates as wide as they can conveniently be made, and then have these plates slit or divided transversely into strips or plates, and the nails cut from these strips or plates will have their strata or fibres of the metal disposed longitudinally or lengthwise of the nails, which will render them as flex- ible as those which are wrought from nail rods, and equally susceptible of being clenched. (Phillips, 1993 citing English Patent No. 3365, application dated July 26, 1810; specifications filed January 26, 1811.)

Shown below are nails used to secure accordion lath - a plaster base found in a rural U.S. post-and-beam home in Wyoming County, New York.

More about the accordion wood lath in this building and our estimate of the building age are

at WOOD LATH, TYPES.

Below: our green arrow points to the characteristic edge ridge that illustrates a machine made cut-nail.

The red arrow points to a split in the cut nail, characteristic of the effort to align the fibres of iron running down the length of the nail - discussed in our description of nails made after 1830 - below. .

These photos of antique cut-nails were provided by an InspectApedia.com reader June 2018.

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) suggest that the nail was of iron whose fibers ran lengthwise, making the nail one probably made after the late 1830s.

For these nails, because it appears that the two cutting/stamping burrs appear on the same side of the nail suggest the nail may have been made after 1840.

Below: Jacob Perkins' 1795 Nail Production Machine Patent. Perkins was a polymath described as an inventor, mechanical engineer, and physicist [Wikipedia] who held 12 American patents and another nineteen English patents. His machine for cutting and heading nails was issued when Perkins was just 24 years old. His nail factory was powered by water from the Powwow river in Amesbury Massachusetts.

[Click to enlarge any image]

Though still used for historical renovations, and for heavy-duty applications, such as attaching boards to masonry walls, cut nails are much less common today than wire nails. - source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nail_(fastener) retrieved 2018/06/15

The cut-nail process was patented in America by Jacob Perkins in 1795 and in England by Joseph Dyer, who set up machinery in Birmingham. The process was designed to cut nails from sheets of iron, while making sure that the fibres of the iron ran down the nails.

Also see Pitt (2003) cited below.

Jacob Perkins' NAILING MACHINE PATENT No X-92 [PDF] was granted Jan. 16, 1795, to Jacob Perkins, Newburyport, MA, witnessed by Sam Coates and Edward W. Shoemaker. Regrettably all of the drawings are missing from the patent scan. Here we reproduce the photographic copy of Perkins' nail machine patent; the photo itself was made from the original on 3 March 1911.

Note: the first U.S. patent was issued in 1790, and in 1795 the U.S. issued just 12 patents.

See our separate guide to cut nails at

NAIL ID & AGE: CUT NAILS - photos of types of cut nails and details about determining their age.

Question: who made the first cut nails in America?

Bob Dees said:

According to “The WPA Guide to Connecticut: The Constitution State”, By the Federal Writers Project.

The first cut nails produced in America were produced by Edmund Darrow in 1722. It says:

“Early industry did not attain any importance until 1772 when a Bean Hill blacksmith, Edmund Darrow, produced from barrel hooping the first cut nails in America”.

- books.google.com/books?id=E07pCAAAQBAJ&pg=PT324&lpg=PT324&dq=Edmund+Darrow+1772&source=bl&ots=D6v851C38P&sig=ACfU3U3CziUWfa8g5zLnoFOeE62bQF-oWg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiuz6yx4-bpAhWQT98KHYZEBIwQ6AEwAHoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q&f=false

There is another reference: “Reminiscences of Bean Hill, Norwich” page 297, written in 1897 by Burrell W. Hyde that states the same thing.

- play.google.com/books/reader?id=Wv8aAAAAYAAJ&hl=en&pg=GBS.PA297

Your website states that the first cut nails were made in 1790 (18 years later than 1772).

Can you tell me who is correct? I’m doing a research project and am wondering which reference is correct.

Thanks very much. - 2020/06/04

Moderator reply:

Bob

Thanks for the discussion, Bob. I think that for clarity we should distinguish between actual production of "cut nails" that included manual cutting of nails out of existing sheet iron (like a barrell hoop), and nail making machines that in turn could produce large volumes of nails.

My favorite source, often cited, for the history of nail making is Nelson, but the article above and also the references at the end of this page cite several sources.

Above, from Nelson, we note that nail making machinery dates back to 1590 - in England.

The slitting mill, introduced to England in 1590, simplified the production of nail rods, but the real first efforts to merchandise the nail-making process itself occurred between 1790 and 1820, initially in the United States and England, when various machines were invented to automate and speed up the process of making nails from bars of wrought iron.

To get back to your original comment, citing

• Benedict, W. Charles, History of the Town of Sutton, Massachusetts, from 1704 to 1876: Including Grafton Until 1735; Millbury Until 1813; and Parts of Northbridge, Upton and Auburn. town, 1878.
  

We have on page 279 this by the author:

The author was discussing, in history of Sutton MA, the "Old Sutton Tavern", (an engraving is shown in the book) and writes about hand wrought nails used in construction of the tavern:

"As will be seen by the engraving, that represents it as it originally appeared, the siding consists of thick oak planks nailed perpendicularly to the frame, and at each of the upper corners the planing is placed diagonally, for the purpose of giving additional strenth in bracing the building.

The clapboards were not added until a later period. They were cloven by hand and fastened by hand-made nails, * cut nails being then unknown.

* About the time of the close of the revolutionary war two brothers of the name Wilkinson, who had ironw orks in Cumberland, R.I., cut a lot of nails from some old barrel hoops, "Spanish hoops," as they were called, and these are supposed to have been the first cut nails ever made.

So we have

The first cut nails produced in America were produced by Edmund Darrow in 1772. (Federal Writers' Project 2013) cited by you

Excerpt: “Early industry did not attain any importance until 1772 when a Bean Hill blacksmith, Edmund Darrow, produced from barrel hooping the first cut nails in America”.

And a similar but less explicit date crediting the Wilkinson brothers in Cumberland R.I., ca 1783 (as the American revolutionary war is dated as April 19, 1775 - September 3, 1783) - (Benedict 1878)

Benedict was writing a bit under 100 years after the end of the revolutionary war so was closer in time to the event of interest, but on the other hand the very recent (2013) Federal Writers' project may benefit from more extensively-available resources.

In sum I'd like to duck the trouble of who made the first cut nails by describing the history as

Dating from 1590 in England, as the earliest report of nail production, the earliest reported cut nails in America are reported to have been cut, essentially by-hand, by Darrow in 1772 (Federal Writers Project 2013) with other authors crediting the Wilkinson brothers somewhat later, ca. 1783 (Benedict 1883).

Also in

James Campbell, Nicholas Bill, Karey Draper, Patrick Fleming, Yiting Pan, Wendy Andrews, Proceedings of the First Conference of the Construction History Society (2015)

[This volume collects together the papers delivered at the first annual conference of the Construction History Society, held in Queens' College, Cambridge in 2014. Papers cover a wide range of topics all on the common theme of the history of construction, from the ancient world to the present day.]

The volume includes discussion of American cut nails and also of the British cut clasp nail, beginning on p. 233

In the illustration above those offset-headed nails were referred to by the author as spur-headed nails. Other sources (Nelson, NPS) identify these heads as used on sprigs and brads (finish nails) while the larger T-headed nails and rose-headed nails were used in framing and also in smaller form for holding wood lath onto framing as a plaster base.

American cut nails

With some justification, the Americans claim that machine production of cut nails was an American invention. From a simple beginning, the lever-operated guillotine machine patented by the prolific Jacob Perkins in 1795 was developed by various independent inventors into a series of efficient cut nail fabrication devices. [21]

By 1810 water powered nail machines had been developed, although American nail making predominantly relied on manual machines.

Nails of a primitive sort could always be cut manually by a blacksmith from heated barrel hoop or other strip iron and several instances of this resort to basics are recorded in the 1788 colony at Botany Bay. [22]

Perkins' later machine took the process one step further and cut tapering shanks from a heated iron ribbon. In order to maintain a taper to the proto shank, the ribbon either had to be wiggled through a shallow horizontal arc or flipped over between each cut.

Perkins' machine was entirely manual, but recent research has shown that at "black heat" of around 500 degC, the shear force of a typical nail shank drops to roughly 300 kilograms. Using leverage. this is easily attainable. [23] The device significantly speeded uip the cutting of basic nail shanks.

These simple headless brads have been found in Britain both of iron and steel, and were usually used in flooring or specialist work. (Fig. 3, nail 1). In American they would be re-heated and headed separately with either conventional facetted heads or bulbous oval heads would be formed with a hand-held die. ...

Reader follow-up

Bob Dees said:
Thanks very much. If I can find a more definitive, more descriptive narrative of the 1772 Edmund Darrow cut nails of Norwich CT, I'll let you know. - 2020/06/04

 

Modern Reproductions of Antique Hand-Wrought Nails

[Click to enlarge any image]

Above, adapted from Nelson (NPS), we summarize some observations that can help separate early cut nails from later cut 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 1830s.

Even most reproduction nails that simulate hand-wrought fasteners will show regularity: the same simulated-hand-hammered head will appear on every nail, and you may observe the straight--edged raised rib of die cut nails made by machine.

Below is a modern cut nail showing the uniformly convex head on both sides of the nail head. This is the head of a modern machine-made cut nail.

Tremont Nail Company continues to manufacture reproduction nails which in appearance are quite like those made by hand more than 100 years ago.

The original factory was established by Issac and Jared Pratt in 1819 on the site of an old cotton mill which had been shelled and burned by the British in the War of 1812.

Known originally as Parker Mills Nail Company, it later became known as the Tremont Nail Company. - Tremont Nail, http://www.tremontnail.com/about.htm

Above is a "hand wrought style" machine made cut nail, produced by Tremont.

Shown at left is Tremont's standard Clout Nail: Similar in design to Shingle Nails, but made from lighter gauge steel, this nail was (and is) used for the application of thin siding and paneling.

It was and is also used for furniture repair, cabinet work, batten doors and counter tops. (Photo courtesy Tremont Nail Company).

The Mansfield, Massachusetts Tremont Nail company's historical notes indicate that nails have been made (by hand) dating back to 300 B.C.

Tremont further explains that in North America, nails were made by hand, often as a winter activity.

 

Tremont Cut Nail Detail Examples

Below, using a Tremont machine-made boat nail as an example we illustrate the sharp 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 as the 1830's in the Northeastern U.S. and appearing later in other locations.

...

More Images of Tremont's Modern Reproductions of Antique Nails

The ruled Tremont nail photo below is followed by four additional photographs of all four sides of this nail.

[Click to enlarge any image.]

...

...

Below is a close-up of the head of the cut nail spike described just above.

This view is important since, if you are examining a completed structure, the nail head may be about all you can see of the fastener.

 

Research on Cut Nail History & Identification, Manufacture & Age

• Adams, W.H. Machine cut nails and wire nails: American production and use for dating 19th-century and early-20th-century sites, Hist Arch (2002) 36: 66. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03374370
• Ferguson, Eugene S. "The Rise and Decline of the American Cut Nail Industry: A Study of the Interrelationships of Technology, Business Organization, and Management Techniques. By Amos J. LovedayJr.(Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1983. xx+ 160 pp. $29.95.)." Business History Review 58, no. 4 (1984): 610-611.
  
  This is a review of Loveday's The rise and decline of the American cut nail industry cited below.
  Excerpts:
  
  In the 1880s, at the peak of production of machine-mae cut nails, Americans, used nearly ten pounds of nails per capita. That figure was nearly five times the per capita consumption in 1810, and the price per pound [for cut nails] in 1887 was only one fifth that of 1810. The machine-made cut nail was a significant American innovation of the nineteenth century, and anumber of nail-making centers arose. This book, despite its general title, is about the nail makers of Wheeling, West Virginia, one of those centers.
  ...
  It was in the 1880s that the wire nail, a French innovation, was introduced in America, and the demand for cut nails rapidly dried up. The businessmen owners and cost-accounting operators disregarded the threat and made no effective attempt to make wire nails. By 1902, the American production of wire nails had surpassed that of cut nails. Ten years later, 92 percent of all nails made in America were wire nails.
  
  Prospective purchasers should be warned that this book is an overpriced, lightly revised, and inadequately edited re-publication of a recent Ph.D. dissertation. Its limitations are suggested by the title of Loveday's dissertation: "The Cut Nail Industry 1776 - 1890; Techology, Cost Accounting and the Upper Ohio Valley." [also cited below - Ed.]
  
• Loveday, Amos J. The rise and decline of the American cut nail industry: A study of the interrelationships of technology, business organization, and management techniques. No. 53. Praeger, 1983. - and - Business Organization, and Management Techniques (Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1983)
• Loveday Jr, Amos John. THE CUT NAIL INDUSTRY 1776-1890; TECHNOLOGY, COST ACCOUNTING AND THE UPPER OHIO VALLEY [PDF] PhD diss., The Ohio State University, 1979.
• Maddox, Lee R., LABELL IRON WORKS, PHOTOGRAPHS, DRAWINGS, DESCRIPTION of the Labelle Cut Nail Collection [PDF] National Park Service, Lee R. Maddex Historian Historic American Engineering Record August 1990. - retrieved 2022/04/28 original source: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/wv/wv0300/wv0329/data/wv0329data.pdf
  
  Excerpts (some paraphrasing)
  
  The Labell Iron works (La Belle Cut Nail Works) was built in 1852 with additions circa 1870, 1890 and 1920, and is still in operation, currently owned by Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel Corporation Wheeling, West Virginia.
  
  La Belle is the largest American cut nail factory and one of two remaining United States cut nail manufacturers. La Belle has been in business for almost 140 years and still uses the same equipment and processes to make cut nails. La Belle helped make Wheeling the "Nail city" during the late 19th century.
• Melchert, Ken, "The Humble Nail – A Key to Unlock the Past" [archived here as PDF] The Harp Gallery, 2495 Northern Road Appleton, WI 54914 USA retrieved 2020/07/06 original source: https://www.harpgallery.com/library/nails.htm
  Excerpts:
  Archaeologists have found hand made bronze nails from as far back as 3000 BC. The Romans made many of their nails from iron, which was harder, but many ancient iron nails have rusted away since. The hand-forged nail changed little until well into the 1700's.
  ...
  In Europe in the 1850's, steel wire was made into tiny nails known as “brads,” with only a very small widened head. These continue to be used to attach small moldings and trim. About 1880 in America and in Europe, the modern wire nail was developed.
• Nelson, Lee H., NAIL CHRONOLOGY as an AID to DATING OLD BUILDINGS [PDF], Historic American Engineering Record National Park Service Department of the Interior Washington, D.C. 20013-7127 , Technical Leaflet No. 48. retrieved 2019/01/08, original source: http://npshistory.com/publications/nail-chronology.pdf
  
  Excerpt:
  
  Dating old buildings from their nails is not a precise technique, but when used with discretion, it has proved generally reliable and useful, for example, in Independence Hall which has been subjected to a complex series of alterations from 1750 to the present time.
  
  If a sufficient number of samples are taken from all parts of the building they can be a good indication that
  
  ( 1) the building was built entirely at a given time, or
  
  
  ( 2) the building has been subjected to additions, alterations, or simple maintenance measures.
  
  Nails can help to define the extent of these changes. For this reason we believe it worthwhile to discuss briefly the various nail types that arc generally found in American buildings.
  
  They are
  
  ( 1) hand-wrought nails,
  
  ( 2) cut nails, and
  
  ( 3) wire nails.
  
  Within these major groups there is a surprising variety with subtle differences in type which enable us to use nails as dating tools with some certainty.'

• Phillips, Maureen K., MECHANIC GENIUSES AND DUCKIES, A REVISION OF NEW ENGLAND'S CUT NAIL CHRONOLOGY BEFORE 1820, [PDF] APT Bulletin Vol. XXV No. 3-4, (1993), pp. 4-16, Association for Preservation Technology (APT) Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1504461
  Excerpt from Introduction:
  
  The standard accepted chronology of the manufacture of cut nails used in the field today is based on Henry Mercer's 1923 article "The Dating of Old Houses" and on Lee Nelson's 1968 pamplet "Nail Chronology as an Aid to Dating Old Buildings."
  
  However, restoration work in the New England, New York, and the mid-Atlantic areas perfor4med since the 1970's has led preservationists to theorize that some types of early cut nails may have been manufactured several years earlier than had been postulated by Mercer and Nelson.
  
  For example, during recent restorationwork at an historic structure in Newbury, Massachusetts, cut nails with characteristics thought to date to post-1815 were found in building fabric known to date before 1807. It was decided to test this thoery by documenting cut-nail manufacturing in New England in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
  
  Three areas were studied: the operation of nail factories around Boston during that period, the descriptions of early nail m achines those factories used, and dateable nail samples from New England structuers that machines may have been produced.
  ...
  A catastrophic fire in the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, D.C. in 1836 destroyed most of the specifications and drawings of the patents filed to that date. While some records were recreated from copies of patent documentation existing in other repositories, these records are far from complete, and the missing documents created critical gaps in the record.
  
  Fortunately some of these gaps were filled when copies of specifications and drawings for two important early nineteenth-century cut nail machine patents were found filed with the ase papers of an early nineteenth-century patent inufringement lawsuits in the regional office of the National Archives in Waltham, Massachusetts.
  ...
  In addition, documentationfor a third important early nineteenth-century machine was found in the specifications and drawings of an 1810 English patent that was filed by an American inventor.
  
  The newly-discovered material provided a tantalizing glimpse into the era of early cut-nail technology, and resulted in the development of a revised chronology for cut nails that relates specifically to New England construction for the years between 1790 and 1815.

• See our complete bibliography including more articles on the history & prodution of cut nails
  at
  NAILS & HARDWARE, AGE RESEARCH

...

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Reader Q&A - also see RECOMMENDED ARTICLES & FAQs

On 2020-08-02 - by (mod) -

Ben, Georgia's Jekyll Island has had European settlers on it, as I bet you know, since 1733,

and according to https://www.jekyllisland.com/history/island-history/, the island has had human occupants since 1500 B.C.:

The earliest known archaeological sites on Jekyll Island suggest that this island has been a destination for more than 3,500 years.

Finding those nice brass spikes in a board gives us a chance to guess at their use if you can describe more about the board itself - or attach some photos (one per comment); It'd be useful to look at the saw or tool marks on the lumber.

The spikes are uniform-tapered and may be hand-cut, probably from the early 1800s.

On 2020-07-31 by Ben BURCHFIELD

I found these brass spikes in the surf line on Jekyll Island. They are approximately 6" long. After finding one by itself, I found this board with some of them protruding. Thanks, Ben

[Photo above]

On 2021-07-13 by mak.church (mod)

@J Norris,

In addition to all the information about old nails above on this page, you may enjoy learning more at the following articles:

AGE AND HISTORY OF ANTIQUE NAILS - https://inspectapedia.com/interiors/Determine-age-of-old-nails.php

ANTIQUE NAIL AGE AND HISTORY FAQs - inspectapedia.com/interiors/Age-of-Nails-FAQs.php

On 2021-07-13 by J Norris

I am curious about this nail, which was given to me. Thank you. It is five inches long.

[Photo above]

On 2020-06-30 by (mod) - antique cut nail age in Texas - or is it a bolt?

Linda

From the regular machine-cut threads at the right end I think you've found a modern iron bolt, most likely made after 1940.

On 2020-06-30 by linda

any idea how old this is? i found it in my backyard in san antonio tx|

On 2020-06-28 by (mod) - irregular square-headed nail from old bureau

Atheana

Thank you for the question and photo.

NAIL AGE DETERMINATION KEY

https://inspectapedia.com/interiors/Determine-age-of-old-nails.php

Offers some tips on estimating the age of your nail

On 2020-06-28 by Atheana

I found an old dresser and this was one of the nails I pulled out of it, just curious on the age based on the nails.. hopefully

On 2019-10-04 - by (mod) - how to recognize modern machine cut nails - 1970

How

Those look like modern machine-made cut-nails; I note that the nail sides are straight-tapered, not rounded, and absent any marks of hand tooling.

If you look closely, under magnification, at a cut nail you can sometimes observe which sides of the nail bear a burr showing the direction of machine cutting.

That in turn will match up with the two different generations of machine-made cut nails described in NAIL AGE DETERMINATION KEY

The "scuff marks" under the head of a nail are usually left by the clamping device that holds the cut nail in place for a second machine step that presses a head onto the nail top. We see that detail more-clearly on round shanked "wire" nails.

Thanks for asking and for the photo.

On 2019-10-04 by How old is this nail and what info do u have?

How old are these nails and where would they have been created?
They were randomly holding up flower baskets in the ceiling of the outside porch of my 1970s house.

I can see a little bit of a dip on one long side and one short side but they are consistent all the way down,

And there are some other smaller consistent scuff marks maybe all the way around the top of the nail? So my guess is it’s from a machine?

 

On 2019-03-17 by (mod) antique clinched cut nails

Taylor

There is no chance that your bent-over clinched nails are 400+ years old.

The nail shank is regular and smooth, not hand wrought - these are cut nails.

The nails are bent-over suggesting that they were originally clinched - driven through wood and their ends bent over.

Clinched nails are chosen with a length longer than the thickness of the target wood: the clinched-nails are driven-through wood and then the exposed nail shank is hammered over flat against the other side of the wood surface.

Clinched nails were used both for decorative purposes and for great withdrawal strength.

But a clinched-nail that is also a cut nail will be older than about 1830-1840. So your nails are less than 200 years old, probably newer.

At NAILS, AGE & HISTORY and

again in at NAIL AGE DETERMINATION KEY you'll read that because older iron, before the early 1800's nails that were to be clinched would have been hand-wrought since otherwise the cross-diretion of iron fibers (in early cut nails) caused the bent nail end to break off.

On 2019-03-17 by taylorjordan1993.tj

I work at a reclaimed lumber yard in Montana and we some lumber torn down from supposedly the Czech Republic embassy in Paris France (which I know the lumber is from) and I denailed carefully these nails from some of the lumber

but I’m curious as to how dangerous touching these could be due to the rust or whatever and I’m curious if anyone believes they’re 403 years old which is how old I was told the product was?

 

On 2018-11-17 by (mod) - probably a machine made nail

David

I enlarged (by clicking it) your photo to see that its sides are so dead flat and edges so straight that I could not see a single hammer mark on the nail shank - making me think this is a machine made nail.

On 2018-11-17 by David and madison

Jamaica found today? Any info. 1800s

On 2018-09-12 by (mod) - signs of a modern cut nail? Rusted-off head.

Some of those nails, especially in the second photo look round - that would be a modern nail.

On the nails that are rectangular in cross section, look for hammer marks (hand wrought) or cut or ground edges (machine made)

On 2018-09-11 by Peter

Would you know the age of these nails?

and

On 2018-09-07 by (mod) - cut nails, spikes, identification tips

Chris

The photo of the nail is not quite sharp enough to look for stamping or grinding marks found on newer nails such as Tremont's reproductions of antique cut nails.

But near the nail head in your first photo I see what could be the remains of a modern nail stamping machine mark.

Take a close look along the sharp edges of the sides of the nail for irregularities or hammer marks. Those would typically mark an older nail.

Of course when if a nail or spike is badly rusted some of those details can be hard to see.

On 2018-09-06 by Chris

Here is one more reference photo as well.

Between your website, and Tremont's, I believe this is a Tremont Cut Spike. Any help you can give with confirming this and dating would be appreciated. Thank you!

On 2018-07-16 by (mod) - age of nails from Justin Morgan possible site

I'd be glad to look at the nails or at sharp photos of them, Dennis.

On 2018-08-27 by Dennis - researching Justin Morgan historic location

I have been doing some research and digging at what I believe to be a historical location.

For the past ten years I have been looking for and at last found a location where Justin Morgan (1747 - 1798, Springfield MA) (founder of the Morgan Horse see ... settled when he came to Vermont.

The general location had always been known however the exact spot was never known.

According to all of my documentation the spot that I have found is the location however in order for me to get the State of Vermont to acknowledge this location with a historical marker they wanted more proof such as some type of physical proof.

In digging at the location we have found nails in three of the four corners of what we believe to be the small log cabin structure that Morgan and his family lived in.

Vermont claims that the nails are not good enough proof because we cannot prove that the nails were from the 1788 time period when Morgan moved to Vermont.

History records show that the small log cabin structure was already there when Morgan arrived.

Morgan himself never owned any land that he settled in Vermont and the cabin that he lived in was on land owned by Joseph Griswold. Griswold was one of the original settlers in Randolph Vermont in which he was given land as long as he settle it.

The connection between Griswold and Morgan comes from Massachusetts ties.

The reason I am emailing you is because I have the nails that we found at the Morgan location and I am wondering if those nails can be dated in some way to establish their age?

Would you be able to confirm the age of a nail? Is there any way? Please email me at denlore3@denlore.com if you think you can help.

 

On 2018-07-16 by (mod) - age of cut nails in antique coffee table

The photo is a little blurry in the nails quite rusted so it's hard to see details but in one of your pictures I can see enough of a very straightedge to think that that's a machine made cut nail.

You can see the history of those in the article NAIL AGE DETERINATION KEY (live link at end of this page)

Remember that when you're guessing at the age of a nail and therefore perhaps the wood item in which it was used, you have to consider the location geographically since in some areas such as North America nail making machines were available on the East Coast much sooner than farther west.

On 2018-07-15 by Anonymous

Hi, I just bought an old unique rustic coffee table fastened with these nails.

Just curious if knowing a little about the nails could give me some indication of how old the table is. I’m guessing these are finishing nails?

 

On 2018-06-15 by (mod) - age of spike from northern California high desert, Litchfield

I would guess 1890 to 1930

On 2018-06-15 by Sydney

It was found in Northern California in the high desert. Black rock desert.

Litchfield Ca. Old logging towns.

On 2018-06-15 by (mod) - indications of a factory-made spike or nail

Sydney

I have to beg the question by asking the country and city where the nail was found since the use of cut nails or machine made nails and their history is not uniform around the world.

Your nail looks like it is machine made - the top is very round with no hammer marks, and the sides show a ridging characteristic of stamped out cut nails rather than hand wrought (and older) nails.

In the U.K. such nails were used between about 1830 and 1900.

In the U.S. the use of machine nails spread from earliest on the east coast, westward over a later period.

On 2018-06-15 by Sydney

What is tbe age of this Nail? I found it in an old fence post.

On 2018-05-12 8 by (mod) -

You welcome to attach some photos that might invite other readers to comment

On 2018-05-11 by Anonymous

thanks for the info! i can tell they're old but the real age will just be a mystery.

...

Continue reading at NAILS, AGE & HISTORY - home, or select a topic from the closely-related articles below, or see the complete ARTICLE INDEX.

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• NAIL AGE DETERMINATION KEY - use this key to guess at the age of your nail or spike
• NAIL ID & AGE: CUT NAILS
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