Help with determining square nail age

[brianc053]

Hi. I know there are lots of posts about this topic and I've found various websites that talk about the history of square nails.
But - I still cannot figure out what I'm pulling out of the ground, and my son is very interested in these things. I'd appreciate some comments if you'd care to share.

What triggered me to post is that a few days ago we pulled a relatively un-corroded square nail from the ground, which is unusual because here in NJ the ground tends to eat these things.
You'll see the difference in the picture below: the one nail off by itself is the one that is recent, and you'll see that the head and upper half of the nail are clear of corrosion.
All the other nails I've photographed are badly corroded - and typical of what we find.

So - how do I go about determining age of these things? Or specifically the one "clean" one, which I've provided close-up pictures of below.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

A History of Mining on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska - Grab it through Amazon!

[Older The Better]

Just guessing but the clean one might have been hammered into something that protected it more than the others like a piece of rubber or metal or a tough knot, it still eventually weathered away but it left a lot less time for that nail to be exposed

 

[HeatherM]

I've used this link before to try and date some..https://www.detecting.us/tips-faqs/nails-dating-sites/

 

[Noah_D]

Just guessing but the clean one might have been hammered into something that protected it more than the others like a piece of rubber or metal or a tough knot, it still eventually weathered away but it left a lot less time for that nail to be exposed

That would make a lot of sense... I have found some like that before and after briefly thinking about their nice condition I didn't think much else of it.

 

[mick56]

You can still buy square nails at a good hardware store.

 

[brianc053]

I've used this link before to try and date some..https://www.detecting.us/tips-faqs/nails-dating-sites/

Thanks, this was somewhat helpful and similar to other sites I'd visited. It doesn't help you get very specific with dates, though ("1830's to today" is a pretty wide range!)

You can still buy square nails at a good hardware store.

Yes, and this is another reason I raised the topic. I certainly don't think any of the nails my son and I have found are modern - it would be hard to get that sort of corrosion naturally in a short period of time, and we hunt sites that date back into the 1700's and 1800's.

Maybe one of the reasons I'm struggling to determine square nail age is - it's really hard (maybe impossible without scientific equipment) to do!

 

[ripvanb]

I date square nails by what I find around them (coins, buttons and such).

 

[ARC]