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Hand wrought iron spike pre-1830 © Daniel Friedman Historical Research on the Production of Nails
Research Citations & Details of Age of Nails to Indicate Building Age

Antique & modern Nails, including wood treenails, hand-wrought nails, cut nails, wire nails, sprites, spur headed nails, etc. can tell us something about the age and history of buildings and communities.

We provide research citations and excerpts describing antique nails focusing on hand wrought nails, cut nails, and machine made nails used in wood frame construction or interior finishing or carpentry work.

We include useful dates for the manufacture of different nail types along with supporting research for various countries from Australia and the U.K. to the U.S. to New Zealand.

Page top photo: a hand wrought spike discussed in these pages.

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.

InspectAPedia tolerates no conflicts of interest. We have no relationship with advertisers, products, or services discussed at this website.

- Daniel Friedman, Publisher/Editor/Author - See WHO ARE WE?

Research on History of Hand Wrought Nails, Cut Nails & Wire Nails

Cut nail production details show  burrs and shear marks - US NPS Nelson cited in detail at InspectApedia.comDrawing: details of cut-nail production explain why you will see shear marks and burrs on machine-cut nails or sprigs.

This image is adapted from the US NPS Nail Chronology article by Nelson cited in detail below. Some of these citations are from Nelson, NPS.

[Click to enlarge any image]

Below we provide research articles on the history of production of nails for various countries or parts of the world. Use the page top or bottom CONTACT link to suggest additional resources.

History of Nails in Australia

History of Nails in India

History of Nails in New Zealand

HIstory of nail imports into New Zealand by counbtry and year - Nigel cited at InspectApedia.comIllustration: Nigel (2017) gives the dominant countries from which nails were imported into New Zealand, 1871 - 1965. [Click to enlarge any image]

History of Nails in Scotland

History of Nails in the U.K.

Spur headed flooring naill, 1806, Dartmouth UK, described by How and cited at InspectApedia.com

Illustration: a spur-headed flooring nail from an 1806 home in Dartmouth described by How (2014.

History Of Nails in the United States

Nail advertisement in The Iron Age 1893 cited in detail at InspectApedia.com

Pittsburgh nail cutting machine cited & discussed at InspectApedia.com history of nails

Illustrated below, Chappell's table of Nails and Alternatives, p. 264

Illustration of types of pegs, nails, and spikes from Chappell, David A., “Hardware,” in Carson, Cary, and Carl R. Lounsbury, eds. The Chesapeake House: Architectural Investigation by Colonial Williamsburg. UNC P Books, 2013. 257-83.

Jesse Reed's 1814 Cut Nail Machine Patent, National Archives, Waltham MA cited in Phillips 1993, at InspectApedia.com

History of Nails in Wales, U.K.

Iron spike / nail found in Wales by InspectApedia.com reader CR (C) Daniel Friedman at InspectApedia.com

Photo above: a 6+ inch iron spike provided by InspectApedia.com reader CR, found in Wales. [Click to enlarge any image]

More photos of this Welsh iron spike are at NAILS & HARDWARE, AGE FAQs


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Citations & References

In addition to any citations in the article above, a full list is available on request.



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