Looking Back at Artifacts Among Us

Square nails were known as cut nails because they were produced by cutting iron bars into rods. They were also known as square nails because of their roughly rectangular cross section.

The cut nail process was patented in America by Jacob Perkins in 1795.

Most of these nails were machine cut and then finished off by a blacksmith who squared the heads. Cabinet makers began using headless, machine cut nails that were tapered and rectangular shaped.

Around 1900, wire nails became predominant which are round nails like we use today.

Why am I writing about square headed nails, you may wonder?

Here is why.

Under many layers of facades in the name of modernization we can find hundreds, maybe millions of these overlooked local historic artifacts, the square headed nail. With the many historic homes that found their beginnings in the late 1800s and early 1900s we can still find these treasures. I, myself, like these rusty odd sharpened nails. Why? Because its another strong link to my ancestors from the muscle and sweat from their hands these objects were pounded into place to withstand time.

Did they ever think hundreds of years later that small metal would still be in place where they put it?

Years ago my parents (Tommy

and Carol McCrary) and I were repurposing material from an old hog pen that had been built by my grandfather, Tom McCrary, when we came upon several square headed nails. Recognizing the value on a personal level we pulled every nail we could out and now they sit in a small cup on display in my home. Many people here could have the same experience.

Though we are a society of demolition, even in the debris there are hidden treasures waiting to be found with a story all their own to be told or to be lost forever, that is up to each of us.

How many square headed nails can you find with your own story to tell?