History, Nailed

Have you ever wondered about the history of the nail in America? I didn’t think so, but I thought it polite to ask jus’ in case.

This subject comes up after I found an old envelope with a handful of cut nails my Grandpa Bill gave to me when I was in my early teens. I didn’t even know I still had them until I started going through my large tool box.

As I recall, Grandpa recovered them from an old shack that had eventually fallen down on some property he purchased shortly after World War I. I remember him saying the building was in disrepair and took several years to finally collapse.

I started to throw them away but set them aside instead.

They got me to thinking – why are those old nails shaped different from the one’s we use today?

Doing a little research, I found out nails have four distinct styles in U.S. history. These include hand-forged nails, before circa 1800; type-A cut nails, circa 1790-1830; Type-B cut nails, circa 1820-1900; and the Wire nail, circa 1890 to present.

The cut nail made its appearance in the mid-1700s. For instance, Thomas Jefferson built a nail factory on his plantation at Monticello as a way to make extra money. His nail factory made both hand-forged and cut nails.

It wasn’t until the mid-1800s that cut nails began dominating the marketplace. Cut nails are not actually “cut,” they’re sliced from steel plate the thickness of the nail shank.

Generally referred to as “square nails”, because of the head, the cutting machine tapers the nail shank as it is sheared from the steel plate, while a second machine forms the head of a cut nail. With the hand-forged nail, all four sides are tapered.

I’m pretty sure this is what a regular  horseshoe nail is, since it has a “square” head.

In the mid-1800s Daniel Dodge, Silas Putnam, and George Capewell patented a nail-making machine to mass-produce horseshoe nails. With mass-produced horseshoes invented about the same time, the need for blacksmithing skills diminished – but I’m getting sideways here.

As for the cut nail, two sides are parallel because they represent the thickness of the plate they were sheared from. Cut nails had their heyday from about 1820 to 1910, the advent of the wire nail.

Wire nails have replaced the cut nail, except in the of refinishing antiques or hardwood floors. Steel wire is fed into a machine that grips the wire, cuts it, makes the head, and chisels the point, all in one operation.

The process is completely mechanized, requiring only one person to turn the machine on and off. Plus wire nail machines can make thousands of nails a minute.

As for the nails in the old envelope – they’re “cut” or “square nails.” And while they don’t hold much in the way of sentimental value – I think I’ll keep them as I’m a sucker for anything considered “old-fashioned.”