This can help date old homesites

[JakePhelps]

If you want to know how to get a general idea on how to date an old homesite then read this post

First off,? ?Square=old? ? Round=new? ?but there are different kinds of each...

The first pick is a hand wrought nail from before 1800's, so if you find these the sites most likely 1700's or early 1800's.
To ID a wrought iron nail, look for the rosehead top and also if its pointed.?

Next pick is a? type A cut nail....these were used circa 1790-1830, they can be indentified by the taper on the side...

Next one is a Type B cut nail....these are perceftly square with blunt tips and square heads, circa 1820-1900.

 

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[JakePhelps]

Next is the Wire Nails, they are skinny and crude looking and round, 1890 to present....

These are "dead door nails" (yes thats were the saying, dead as a doornail comes from),
The are nailed through a door then bent back around and stuck into the wood.

next pic is a early wood screw, washer, tack, and finnaly a cut off end of an iron chisel or rod...

 

[JakePhelps]

And then you have your custom made nails

First pick is a "holder-downer" nail, probably improvised by some farmer to hold a picture or hold a board or something down, the item is clamped under the head then its nailed down.

Next is an unidentified large flat-headed nail....no clue as to what it is.

Next is ones without any head on them, and no it didnt fall off :P

 

[JakePhelps]

Ok last page...

Here is some wider shorter old nails, im guessing 1700's...

Next is a real nice small finishing nail, 1700's or early 1900's.

Then you have your staples....The squarish one is made rom scrap metal and its late to mid 1800's.
The other staple is early 1900s made form an iron rod...


I have found all these different types of nails in my neigbors field using a detector/magnet.

Hope they help someone date an old homesite or something, i actually think they are fun to have, i have them on a plaque which hangs in my basement

 

[JakePhelps]

forgot one thing, if a wood screw has a blunt tip then its most likely earlier than the mid 1800's.

 

[JakePhelps]

Thanks What do you mean by romex staple and the barbwire staple? I am not really up on my staples and stuff, so could you explain. The square nails are all definetly old, i found them in places no one has gone since the early 1900's but i see what you mean as there are modern masonary nails that look similar

 

[littleneckhalfshell]

"And then you have your custom made nails
First pick is a "holder-downer" nail, probably improvised by some farmer to hold a picture or hold a board or something down, the item is clamped under the head then its nailed down."

Actually the nail pictured and described as a "holder-downer" nail, looks a lot like the barrel hoop nail I have on some of my old barrels. I am not sure on it's size from the picture, but the ones I have that were on small 5 gallon wooden barrels were about a quarter inch on the "hold down" part and about a three eighths of an inch on the part that was hammered into the stave. The hoops are hammered snug as far as they would go down the side of the barrel and then the nail is hammered in to prevent the hoop from sliding up and loosening. I would suggest that if this nail is similar to what I am describing, that there once were wooden barrels in the area where these nails were found.

 

[JakePhelps]

Yep thats what size they are! Im learing something new everyday...I guess there must have been barrells out there

 

[JakePhelps]

Do you know how old the romex one is? I found it on a tree holding regular straight wire to a tree.

 

[miester]

Looks like you've done some research on old nails and screws. But the last nail on your list, the type b, 1900, I still see those for sale at some hardware stores, as a matter of fact I have a bag of unused ones around here somewhere.

 

[JakePhelps]

Yep they still make them in small quanities for restoration work

 

[JakePhelps]

I should also mention that nails used to be worth alot of money So the more nails i guess thoeretically the people were more richer!

 

[rjnail]

great info,, tnks

 

[JakePhelps]

No problem

 

[hollowpointred]

cool post jake!

 

[jglunt]

Great info and definately valuable for dating.

The skinny finish nail looks like a modern stick nail used in pneumatic or gas operated finish nailers. They typically have a "T" shaped head and are flat on the sides

Jim

 

[JakePhelps]

Yea, it does look just liek those... but i don't think it is, because it has hammered sides and the head is applied on. Plus if i remember it was found pretty deep with some other iron things. Has anyone noticed a relation to wealthy peoples houses and old nails? My neighbors house was built in 1745 and in the 1700's and early 1800's really rich people lived there and there seems to be alot of old square nails from that period.