Bill in Oregon Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 Just watched a couple of youtubes on making nails. Sure looks easy enough, and lacking a nail heading tool, am I correct in assuming one could simply drill a hole in a piece of flat stock or scrap and use that for the heading device? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Einhorn Posted June 7, 2009 Share Posted June 7, 2009 Here is a photo of the nail making station at Williamsburg. It includes a replaceable header, a little anvil block, a cut-off hardy, and a lever to flip the nail out of the header. Note the cut-off hardy is set so that the flat surfaces protect the face of your hammer and has a notch to make a measured cut, just enough to be able to break the nail off in the header. The notch is a wee bit lower than the two flat surfaces. You can sit at your forge, and make nails in one heat without moving from your seat. It is on my list of things to make someday. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragons lair Posted June 8, 2009 Share Posted June 8, 2009 Bill, the hole(round or square prefered) needs to be tapered. Like an upsidedown funnel or the nail will stick in the hole. Ken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rich Hale Posted June 8, 2009 Share Posted June 8, 2009 Make a few hundred regular nails using the header plans and bp above then makeing special nails will come to you easy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 8, 2009 Share Posted June 8, 2009 M look into making a "1 firebrick forge" using the soft firebrick and heated using a plain old propane torch like is used for plumbing. It would be ideal for such a project and you can have multiple pieces heating while you are working. I think you are right in that you would maybe want to do a bit of preshaping by forging and then use "set" to do the final shaping into the cone. Will you be doing these in wrought iron like the Romans or in modern mild steel? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Ameling Posted June 8, 2009 Share Posted June 8, 2009 (edited) Yes, you can use a flat plate for a nail header. Just make sure that the hole is flared out on the bottom side - or you will get a "wedge fit" with your nail. It does help to have something of a "domed" area around your nail header hole, but that just helps you with rounding/tapering the head - that hammer clearance stuff. A fairly easy way to get that with a flat plate nail header is to heat your plate up, and drive a large ballpeen hammer into the underside while holding the hole thing over your hardy hole or the end of a larger pipe. This would them "push" the metal down to create that "dome" shape. You also need to start with some pretty good tool steel. A large truck leaf spring would work. Doug Merkel (sp) makes nail headers like that - but he also draws out one end for a more convenient handle. He "domes" one section, then punches it and drifts it from below to get that tapered hole. Don't forget to put a little rat-tail loop on the end of the handle to hang it up --- where you won't lose it! In several of the blacksmithing books there is a drawing of a nail-header combo tool. Eric Sloane's Early American Tools book comes to mind. It was designed to set into a stump or clamp in a vice. It had a cut-off hardy on one side, that nail header in the middle with a slit underneath it, and a lever off of the other side to slip into that slot under the header and pop the nail back out. A lot of nail makers used a charcoal "brazier" to heat up their nail rods. They kept several in the fire heating up, used a small hand-bellows to perk up the heat when necessary, and kept rotating from one rod to the next when in ... production. That brazier was a lot like the ones used for soldering irons for tinsmiths. Plus nail making was also a ... cottage industry. People worked at home and at night around their fireplace making nails. So it made use of the light from the fire, and the heat for the home - while doing productive work to help pay the bills. If enough tools were available, several family members could be working at one time. The early Romans used a flat plate as a nail header. One cache of nails found near an old Roman fort in England had 16 TONS of nails in it! The estimate was 875,000 NAILS! They were all made up and ready, but never got used in constructing other buildings in that fort. They were also amazingly consistent in length, diameter, and head size/shape. There is a good book on early Roman iron work in Britain. It is called: Iron For The Eagles The Iron Industry of Roman Britain by David Sim & Isabel Ridge isbn 0-7524-1900-5 The one author did a prior book about the archeology of Roman iron production in Britain - mining, smelting, bloomery, etc. This book they talk about that iron production, but then went on to produce their own iron billets, and then forge them into tools/weapons - hammers, axes, arrowheads, spears, swords, etc. They also did a time/labor analysis of each step. Very interesting reading. Roman hobnails. You would need that top tool to form the head consistently. Much like a Rivet Set. Form your nail shank. Cut mostly through your rod leaving enough mass for the head, slip into your header, snap off the rod, set your "rivet set" over it and smack it to form your hobnail head. With practice, it would get easier. It reminds me of a comment Francis Whitaker made. To paraphrase: to make something, you need to make up 45 of them and throw away the first 40. That ... practice ... adds up. And the other thought is that the things that look to be soooo simple to make tend to be much much harder to make! Like a shepherd's crook curl on the end of a bar looks soooo simple to make, but getting it done in a consistent and symmetrical manner is the hard part. Or a scroll without any kinks or flat areas in the curls. Just some humble rambling thoughts to share. Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands Edited June 8, 2009 by Mike Ameling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John B Posted June 8, 2009 Share Posted June 8, 2009 A fairly easy way to get that with a flat plate nail header is to heat your plate up, and drive a large ballpeen hammer into the underside while holding the hole thing over your hardy hole or the end of a larger pipe. This would them "push" the metal down to create that "dome" shape. You also need to start with some pretty good tool steel. A large truck leaf spring would work. Please remember not to hit one hammer face with another, use a brass / lead / copper or soft faced hammer otherwise chips will fly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Ameling Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 (edited) Well, I thought there was a drawing or picture of that other combo nail header/cutter with lever in one of the Eric Sloane books, but I couldn't find it. And I also checked Edge of the Anvil, Art of Blacksmithing, Making Tools, and Early American Wrought Iron. Not in them either. I know I saw it in one of these books around here. But I did find a grainy photo on my ... "infernal machine" ... but without any description or notes of where the pic came from. So here's the pic. It does not have an "anvil" block, but it does have that cutter and header. And that lever to pop the nail back out. The other nail header in the pic looks a lot like the Williamsburg header - except this one would have been set down into the stump next to the anvil. It's an interesting combo tool. It almost looks like they made a cut-off hardy, then a nail header with long legs and welded it to that cut-off hardy. And then added that lever to pop the nail back out. And all with that tang to set down into the hardy hole. Now all this has got me back to thinking about nail making again. I'm going to have to see about setting up a Colonial era Nail Makers tool kit - a good demo for Living History events. And at a few "pence" per nail to the tourists, it could also go a long ways towards keeping me in food/beverages at the events - without working ... too hard! Mikey - that grumpy ol' German blacksmith out in the Hinterlands Edited June 11, 2009 by Mike Ameling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 I was getting ready to sht down for the day at my last SCA event when a fellow came by and asked if I could do a rosehead nail for him; so I dug out my 1/4" shorts which I save for nailmaking and did him one for US$1! after you have made a couple of hundred of them they tend to get tedious... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M. Demetrius Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 At least you didn't have to light the fire in the forge for that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Ameling Posted June 11, 2009 Share Posted June 11, 2009 A couple decades ago, a friend made around $400 over a 2-day living history weekend selling "nails" for a buck a piece! He had made up a bunch of nails before he got there, but did "make" some as the days went on. He sat next to his campfire with a couple rods stuck into it. And he had a low stump on the ground with a block type anvil. He would do a quick taper, cut mostly through, snap it off in the header tool, and smack the head a couple times. Then cool in water and throw the nail into a wood bowl with a sign next to it saying $1 each or 6 for $5. He only occasionally worked at making a nail - to help draw the crowd. Any time the bowl started getting short on nails, he would unobtrusively put another handful in from his stash. He got lots of quality "talking" time done with his buddies, and made a few bucks to help with the food/beverage bill. And he never even worked up a sweat doing it! And since he was just ... making nails ... he didn't get all those other requests that blacksmiths get when demonstrating. Plus no forge, and almost no tools to lug around. Of course, he did have his whole history of nails shpeel for anyone who asked or wanted to listen. Forged nails are a nice little ... souvenir ... for the people. Plus it is something they can use back home - to tack into the wall and hang a coat/picture from. And you can always curl the end so that it can be worn as a necklace. A quick little inexpensive trinket. Mikey Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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