Mysterious Nails

[CaptainCook]

Hey guys, this is my first post here. I searched for this site and joined it because I need help with this. I also will use this forum in the future (lots!). Here are the pics:

Sorry I did not put something next to them for reference, but the very first one (the one that looks like there is no head in the top right) is exactly 1.5" long. The longer ones are around 3" long. This may sound crazy, but I found all of these except for one within the same 1' square of dirt. I used a metal detector and shovel.

 

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[kuger]

magnet....are you really looking for/wanting nails?You do want to get them out,because if there is coins there nails can mask the signal from them

 

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[Roger Mn.]

I think your nails are from the time the house was being built. Nails in left over lumber were bent so no one would step on them. The roofing nail looks like it is ribbed and is not very old. Older roofing nails were zinc coated and ruff on the hands. Instead of the builders hauling away all the scrap materials with nails they burnt them to save time and money.
If you want to learn about nails go to the lumber company and look them over. It would take more time than I can spare telling you about them.
I hope you find some silver coins and old cents.
rd

 

[yelnif]

CaptainCook, what you have are nails from construction site- burn pile- had one at every const. site I had work at. Bent nails are from removing them from bridgeing and braceing. Bad business- leaving all those nails behind. I had my crews use magnet bars to get the nails and other metal at the end of the job. HH yelnif...

 

[BosnMate]

Dig and screen is faster. Hand forged square nails were replaced by cut square nails, and most of the square nails we find today are cut nails. Jefferson had a slave that his job was to make nails, all day every day, one at a time. Cut nails came along about 1820 and phased out around 1910/20 because wire nails were cheaper to make. Square nails come loose, because they are tapered, and when they do loosen up they can't be tightened for the same reason. So in order to make something hold, like a hinge of a door, or a horse shoe on a horses hoof, the nails are driven through and tightly clinched or bent over so they will hold. One of your nails is a roofing tack for composite shingles. I agree with kuger, I think your nails have been in a fire and heated red hot at sometime in the past.

 

[CaptainCook]

Hey I went out and dug from 7:15 to 9:15 this morning and found some extremely peculiar things. Can't upload pics now, but I will around noon. The mystery just got deeper.

 

[CaptainCook]

Alright here are the pics. Found these this morning.


What in the flippin' flappin' flapaptillin' is that hunk of metal next to the eraser? It is solid metal, because the discrimination was turned all the way up on my metal detector when I found it. It is pretty heavy for its size. What is it? And is that a barn door hinge?

 

[BosnMate]

It looks like there was a big burn pile there. The nails were left in the wood, along with other things that ended up in there. The blob is probably something that melted in the fire, like aluminum, lead, or tin among other things.

 

[CaptainCook]

I just keep finding more weird stuff. No pics now, but I am finding a lot of spiral nails. They look like a nail drill bit. Some of them are reddish. I have also found latches and related objects. On top of that, I am finding some sort of ore. It is green with patches of white and some shiny spots.

 

[Ruchman]

ive always called the spiral nails "pallet nails"?

 

[CaptainCook]

Close, but they have longer spirals and the spirals last the whole length of the nail.

 

[Ruchman]

They come in many variety's google "pallet nails" or there a fluted concret nail
.

 

[DoranHashemi]

Pin pointer

 

[CaptainCook]

What do you mean?

 

[DoranHashemi]

Like a whites bullseye or pistol probe

 

[CaptainCook]

What?

 

[kuger]

....I am thinkin some kids had a Bon-Fire Party....I know we sure did that kind of thing when I was a kid....out away from anybody

 

[bigfoot1]

captain, welcome to the hobby.Always fun to find and figure out what your finds are.May I suggest that your finds pictured in this thread are generally considered"trash"by most expierienced hunters.We all started out much like you have.What you may want to learn from this is the dating of your finds,hence dating your site.I would say mostly 1950s to new.
Use this chance to research pinpointers,what they are and why we use them.Practice doing research on nails etc.as you will need this skill in the future(even now)

As a general guideline you should do what you can to id items and when you simply cant....ask if we will do it for you.Know that it does take effort,ours,yours,or both.

Again welcome to the hobby and t-net....happy hunting
pat

 

[BosnMate]

I've always called those spiral nails "drive screws." They are modern, I don't remember seeing them until around the 1970's or later. We had hard steel drive screws at the mill for use in concrete. They were putting a board down on the concrete floor to build a wall on, and used those nails in that application.