HISTORIC IRONWORK REPAIRS IN TIMBER-FRAMED BUILDINGS.
Chapter 7.
7. The origins of nails, staples, screw fixings and bolts. 2/6.
Salzman gives a very comprehensive assessment of the nails available from the 13th century onwards. (Salzman LF, 1952 p304). This is summarised in the table in Appendix ?? What is immediately evident is the huge variety of terminology applied to them and also the massive numbers produced and sold. For example over half a million nails were being stored at Calais in 1390. Pricing is complicated and relies on the long hundred of six score i.e. 120 and the long thousand of sixty score i.e. 1200. Thus large nails cost more per hundred than small ones.
During the 15th century it became increasingly popular to term the nails by their price per hundred, hence the introduction of the tepenineyl, threpenynayl, fourpenynayll, fyfepenynayll, sixpenynayle up to the xpenynaylle. However these became type names which no longer reflected the original price as for example in 1477 when a hundred xpenynayll cost 8d. at Clarendon. (Salzman LF, 1952 p315).
Nails are good for securing green timber or softer woods as they tend to punch a precise hole and present a large surface area for gripping. Even so, when used on thin section boarding such as in a door they are normally used over-sized and the protruding points turned and driven back in to prevent the nail pulling out under tension. This is known as 'clinching' and a clenchar was seen as a separate craftsman. (Salzman LF, 1952 p309).
Nails are not so good for use in dry or hard, grainy woods where they tend to act as a wedge into the grain causing longitudinal splits. This was overcome during the early 18th century by forging wedge-section shanks with a chisel point. These are driven in across the grain thus cutting any fault path and providing a very large surface area for gripping.
This type of nail (Fig. 7. 5) was made from metal plates rolled in a mill 'to the required thickness and then split by splitting rollers into nail-rods or split-rods of various sizes, depending on the size and type of nail to be made. These rectangular rods of soft, malleable iron were then taken by nailers and drawn to a point by hammering. Heads were the untapered portion of the shank spread by clamping the shank in a vise and striking it with a hammer'. (Mercer 1924).
Fig 7.5. An wedge sectioned hand-wrought nail from the bread oven at The Castle Inn, Earles Colne. The oven dates to c.1840.
In Neve's 1726 The City and Country Purchaser the author details 21 kinds of common nail and gives close descriptions of their uses. (See appendix). Those of most interest are the clout, dog, rose, sharp, square, round head and pound nails. These are the types that would have been used to fasten an ironwork repair. By Neve's time, the pricing structure has changed from by the long hundred or long thousand to being measured by weight, hence sizes are expressed by the lb per thousand. The exception seems to be for the pound nail 'much used in Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk; ……The sizes are 6d. 8d. 10d. 20d and 40d.'
At the end of the 18th century hand-forged wrought iron nails began to be superseded by machine-stamped nails pressed out of sheets of wrought iron. Known as 'square cut nails', these are easy to identify as they have smooth shanks and a pronounced burr along two edges from the die. There are two kinds. Type A (Fig. 7.6) has a burr on each face as the work was turned over beneath the cutter to make the second cut and the later Type B (Fig. 7.7) (prevalent from 1810 onwards) has burrs on one side as it was moved from side to side beneath the cutter. Late 19th and 20th century nails may have a makers initial pressed in the head. (Fig. 7.8).
Fig 7.6. Type A cut clasp nail. These were developed at the end of the 18th century. Cut in a water-powered guillotine both faces are burred. The head and point was hand forged. (IMACS User's Guide).
Fig 7.7. Type B cut clasp
nail. The machinery for cutting this type of nail was introduced in 1810.
It is identified by having two burred edges on the same face. (IMACS User's
Guide).
Fig 7.8. A stamped cut clasp nail of the early 20th century. Image enhanced to show letter T.
