Farm Tools with Richard Armstrong

How nails were made and used in the past.
Produced by Irvin Leopold.
Interview with Richard Armstrong.
Thank you for viewing our videos. Please visit our website for more blogs and information about the Research Room and Museum. whhs.ca
A big thank you to Irvin Leopold who has produced many of the videos. You can view his Facebook page here / 100068760874436
The information presented in these videos are based on our community interest, research and understanding at the time of filming. WHHS makes every effort to ensure accuracy, but new information may come to light in the future.

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Here is a little explanation from a Senco Industries on penny nails: The penny number is simply the price of 120 nails of a given length in historic England. Though the exact timing and circumstances are lost to history, what started as simple, standard pricing for various lengths of hand-forged nails became a naming convention that would last for more than 500 years and counting.
On the low end, 1-inch nails were sold for 2 pence per 120 nails. That’s how 2-penny or 2d came to describe nails that are 1 inch in length. On the high end, six-inch nails were sold for about 60 pence per 120 nails, which is why 60-penny or 60d nails refer to 6-inch nails today.
From 2d to 16d nails, the penny size increases by one to two for every ¼-inch of length added to the nail. For 20d nails and longer, the penny size increases by 10 per ½-inch of length. Here is a handy chart for reference - if you’re new to penny sizes, you can print it out and place it on your toolbox.
2d = 1” 10d = 3”
3d = 1-¼” 12d = 3-¼”
4d = 1-½” 16d = 3-½”
5d = 1-¾” 20d = 4”
6d = 2” 30d = 4-½”
7d = 2-14” 40d = 5”
8d = 2-½” 50d = 5-½”
9d = 2-¾” 60d = 6”
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The really old nails are wrought iron - you can actually see the grain of the iron as it runs in the forged shank. The wrought nails could go well up into the early to mid 1800's but could easily date to pre 1700s. Large forged wrought iron drift pins have been found in Acadian dyke logs. In colonial times nails were so valuable abandoned homes were often burned to recover the nails. Some nails were bent on the end or clinched to hold batten boards or wide floorboards. Nice to see Irvin's videos being featured on the musuem page.