wire bound booklet

Are square nails really worth money?

hillbillydigger

Someone told me square nails from the pioneer days are worth a lot of money. He said back in the day nails were expensive to buy/make so when a family decided they wanted to move they burnt their cabin down so they could retrieve all the nails as it was cheaper that way. So because of that the square nails he said are worth money. I find quite a lot of them in Tennessee. I am saving them, but wondering if I should and if so who buys these things?

beerdoodle

not being a wise acre, but people who collect square nails, and they are out there. Some are rarer than others and i reckon some even have markings. Similar to railroad spikes and nails i assume

DougF

Believe it or not you can still buy new "square nails" (actually called cut nails), but I'm sure the old ones hand made by blacksmiths are a little different. They were used for nailing floors until recently.

Finnerman

If they are worth anything at all then my yard is a gold mine. Please come rid me of the riches. Just leave any jewelry and/or coins you find. Sounds fair to me.

seanprodanas

my town in Ma actually has the origianl nail factory and still makes the nails the exact same way. Alot of people like to add the rustic old school look the newer houses

The Rebel

I'm sure some people like to build with original nails.

hillbillydigger

I tried to research them last night what little I could find that didn't bring up info on manicures and didn't find anything said they were considered valuable today. If anybody seriously buys these things let me know and I will sell you some and can probably find you more.

The Rebel

I'm willing to bet that there are people that rebuild old furniture would want to use them so that they can still be classified as period furniture.

seanprodanas

Mansfield MA. They maybe able to give you some info

DigginTexas

you can tell cut nails (machine made) from hand forged nails. cut nails will have only two tapered sides, the other two sides are parallel, the thickness of the sheet they are cut from. hand forged nails will be tapered on all four sides.

borborygmus

that's funny...my grandfather found dozens of those on his farm land, then would show me those rusty buggers.

hillbillydigger

So far in my research I have turned up no one really wanting these dang things. I'm really not surprised. I was going to wonder if they were crazy if anyone did want to pay me for these.

Adirondack AL

Seems like anything that is worth anything, is on ebay or some other site for sale if you can't find it there it's probably not worth much.. Just my opinion

KingTotsalot

KT wonders if it might be all in the marketing of those older square nails...??? If one were to put some on ebay and list them as antique hand forged square nails...from a house site from the late 1700s/early 1800s...then you might get some takers for lots of 10 or 20 at a time...$1 each????? who knows...KT does know there is a buyer for everything out there tho!

borborygmus

you never know...perhaps if the nails are accompanied by some provenance to add value.