Good question. Were I doing work professionally in my shop now I'd have to establish a current shop rate. My shop rate was $100.00/hr back when I did a little fab work and if I were up to apprentice standards of 100/hr. a bulk order would have to be around $1.50 ea. to put a little in my shop fund.

Frosty The Lucky.

I found myself wondering how big the market for hand forged nails were and what they'd cost but never looked into it. I'd never guess $1+ for one nail. Looks like I need to get busy  

I talked to a lady that interned at one of the hard core historic sites one summer (Monticello?, Mt Vernon?) and she mentioned helping to make all the nails for the barn they were building, 5000 IIRC...bet she could make a nail in 1/2 a heat!

Years ago I visited the Williamsburg Blacksmith shop with the Mid-Atlantic Blacksmith Guild.  They had a nail-making station that they constructed based upon their research.  They needed the nail-making station because of the large volume of nails that they needed to manufacture.   The top photo of their nail-making station that I took, the second photo is a Swedish nail-making station.  The Williamsburg station is amazing, the taper is forged on the anvil block, then notched in the hardy, the hardy has flats on it to act as a stop, then broken off in the header, headed, and then flipped out by poking the lever that is next to the hardy.... all in one heat. 

 

I like the ingenuity of the Williamsburg setup. It looks like it would be really easy using that setup to get quick batches done in no time. I might just recreate it for the fun of it.

I like the notcher, may have to make one to speed up my college students when they have to make 2 nails for the Fine Arts Metals Instructor as part of the class. Sure would save wear and tear on my hardies and hammer faces...

Edited August 27, 201510 yr by ThomasPowers

I sell for 1.00 at the fair and historical society. 

SReynolds, using what size stock? What is the overall length of the nail?

site not working

trying something different here

three sixteenths and quarter inch shank about three inches long

That sounds like a monster. I've driven 20d nails by hand with a 16oz hammer and I can't say I'd be willin to try yours lol

Stupid forbidden message....

I've been getting around the forbidden message by writing my message then exiting the thread. Coming back and clicking in the text window brings my message back up and I submit it. It's working more often than the edit and paste method.

There are however some threads I seem to be forbidden regardless.

Frosty The Lucky.

I have done that as well and it hasn't worked for me thus far. Thinking about typing in German.

 the second photo is a Swedish nail-making station.

 

 

I've saved that Williamsburg photo to my collection with the intent of building one for myself.  I never seem to get around to it, but maybe one day....

 

That photo from the Swedish guy is actually part of a video I got to see on youtube.  The smith is an absolute master at making nails.  Watching him work was a real joy, just hate that I lost the link to the video.

At the end of class this weekend,  I did a 1.5 hr lesson on nail making. No one could. That is to say, it looked sorta like a nail, but was quite flawed. Not to mention, the students beat the nail header. 

It takes a lot of practice.

 

Since I'm forbidden from accessing the other thread, I thought I'd put up this dandy video for general consumption.  I really enjoy hunting for videos of old smiths in far off Europe.  Youtube is thick with them, but you have to hunt hard to find the good ones.  

Anyhow, here's a great video from a recent hunt on youtube.  The guy's nail-forging station is simple and easily replicated.  Forging the ox shoes looks like it would be a test, though!

 

Edited September 21, 201510 yr by VaughnT

Thanks for posting that, definitely worth a gander!

Obvious amateurs, a real smith needs a London pattern anvil to makes things...... 

Nice teamwork on the shoes. 

Good show for sure though I have to admit it took me a little while to remember ox have cloven hooves. Till then I was wondering what heck they were making.

Frosty The Lucky.

VaughnT  Nice video. They looked to be punching out the nail holes with incredible ease. I've shod plenty of horses but have never seen an ox done, live anyway.  

Sorry for waking up a sleeping thread,

that Williamsburg nail making station is pretty awesome! 

did any of y’all ever get around to replicating it?