Square Head Nails

[Chris Parks]

Mrs P has asked me to fix an old table that was imported to this country from NZ in the early 1900's. it has square head nails in it with heads like a conventional bullet head nail not a clout. I most probably only need a dozen at the most about 50mm long, apart from the dodgy, rusted offerings from Ebay with nearly all having flat heads does anyone know where I can get some in Australia.

[jmk89]

Chris

Any chance of a picture of the original nails? I'm not quite able to picture them from your description.

Cheers

Jeremy

[NCArcher]

Do they look like this Chris?
Mustad nails Australia

[Chris Parks]

Sort of, a couple of pictures for you but you can't see much except for hammer marks where the builder was either having a bad day or he just hated the table


IMG_2066.jpg These are the biggest ones at the base and head of the two pedestals.

IMG_2058.jpgThese are the size I am after

IMG_2050.jpgThe stretcher that was here is missing


IMG_2044.jpgIt was attached by nails through this skirt

IMG_2063.JPGAnother picture of nails

IMG_2057.JPGOne of the gap that has happened over the years between the support blocks and the pedestal and if I can't close it up by careful application of a big hammer and a block of wood I may have to break them and make new ones, hopefully saving the nails.

The nearest thing they resemble is a nail out of a nailing gun and it may come to that yet.

More photos for full disclosure..

IMG_2048.jpgIMG_2046.jpgIMG_2049.jpg

[jmk89]

Perhaps some of the nails from Goods and Chattels would suit

[Chris Parks]

Thanks Jeremy, they should do it.

[NCArcher]

I think you might have nailed it Jeremy

[Chris Parks]

Very Droll Tony, get back to work.

[aldav]

Could they possibly be horse shoe nails? They look like they have a tapered top.

[Robson Valley]

I doubt the horse nails.
In early Canada, they were sheet cut nails, very much the shapes of modern casing and finishing nails
with a relatively small but square-shouldered head.
I had some pop up out of a little bedside dresser. Never did anything with it.

[auscab]

does anyone know where I can get some in Australia.

I’ve never seen any new old stock except for the odd box on eBay or at auctions . Mainly screws though . What I do is make them when I need them . Just buy the right size and re head them . If it’s the round head Late Victorian or Edwardian type it shouldn’t be to hard at all. You just make a basic heading plate , which is just a hole in a steel plate for a short run. Re shape the heads using an anvil of some sort and the heading plate . I’ll see if I can find the nail type I think you have and try and show you . I had a few in my hands two days ago but they were all straightened and put back into the base of the Cedar chest of drawers I was working on . That sort of nail is a round wire or shank nail and the head is round but with four sloped sides like a roof . Sort of .

[Xanthorrhoeas]

These are called cut nails or dress nails. The only manufacturer that I know of is in the USA Welcome to Tremont Nail Company - Steel Cut Nails for Authentic Restoration Projects and Remodeling

If the Goods and Chattels ones aren't large enough and you only need a few I can probably find some for you. I had about 10 kg of these - original, unused 19th century cut nails about 1 inch long. However, the 2011 flood made a real mess of them so I only bothered to try to save a few with phosphoric acid for the rust. Because of that mine are grey/white.

[Chris Parks]

Thanks for the kind offer but they need to be about 50mm long.

[ian]

Hi Chris
are these sort of what you are looking for Square-Cut Nails - Lee Valley Tools
To save on postage, if you can wait till July, I can bring some back with me then.
alternatively, I could post a few now and bring the balance back in July.

[auscab]

No Guys! I'm disagreeing with these suggestions going by .

Its a Jacobean revival table . Built in NZ . If you compare to AU its somewhere between 1915 and 1935 . I'm rough on Jacobean revival dates for Victoria so I may be out a little . Clipped flat sided nails with rose or square heads were 50 years before this table . Three and four sided rose heads on round wire nails were from 1890 on roughly . Stamped cross hatched flat heads on round wire type shanks were from the 1920s on
" roughly ".
If Chris takes a nail out, It wont be a square or rectangular shank but a round wire . Id bet a lot on that . $22 roughly .

I wouldn't be paying and shipping Poor Victorian copies . Those things don't resemble real antique nails . Nail making didn't change much from Antiquity through until roughly 1780 on ,it was a hand and hammer operation. From around 1840 / 50 with new mechanisms it changed rapidly every ten or twenty years or so until the 1930s I think ? And none of them look exactly like those not hand made new options.

Here is a pair of original 1890s to 1915 nails on the right, one lying down the other standing . And on the left a pair of new bullet heads the same , The one standing, I re headed in a heading plate today . Using a flat square punch helped me out . Not perfect but with a bit of experimenting you could get there . Just showing what I think you should do Chris .

Rob