Square Head Nails

Mrs P has asked me to fix an old table that was imported to this country from NZ in the early 1900's. it has square head nails in it with heads like a conventional bullet head nail not a clout. I most probably only need a dozen at the most about 50mm long, apart from the dodgy, rusted offerings from Ebay with nearly all having flat heads does anyone know where I can get some in Australia.

Chris

Any chance of a picture of the original nails? I'm not quite able to picture them from your description.

Cheers

Jeremy

Do they look like this Chris?
Mustad nails Australia

Sort of, a couple of pictures for you but you can't see much except for hammer marks where the builder was either having a bad day or he just hated the table:D


Attachment 430693 These are the biggest ones at the base and head of the two pedestals.

Attachment 430694These are the size I am after

Attachment 430695The stretcher that was here is missing


Attachment 430696It was attached by nails through this skirt

Attachment 430697Another picture of nails

Attachment 430698One of the gap that has happened over the years between the support blocks and the pedestal and if I can't close it up by careful application of a big hammer and a block of wood I may have to break them and make new ones, hopefully saving the nails.

The nearest thing they resemble is a nail out of a nailing gun and it may come to that yet.

More photos for full disclosure..

Attachment 430699Attachment 430700Attachment 430701

Perhaps some of the nails from Goods and Chattels would suit

Thanks Jeremy, they should do it.

I think you might have nailed it Jeremy :D

Very Droll Tony, get back to work.:)

Could they possibly be horse shoe nails? They look like they have a tapered top.

I doubt the horse nails.
In early Canada, they were sheet cut nails, very much the shapes of modern casing and finishing nails
with a relatively small but square-shouldered head.
I had some pop up out of a little bedside dresser. Never did anything with it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chris Parks

does anyone know where I can get some in Australia.

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I’ve never seen any new old stock except for the odd box on eBay or at auctions . Mainly screws though . What I do is make them when I need them . Just buy the right size and re head them . If it’s the round head Late Victorian or Edwardian type it shouldn’t be to hard at all. You just make a basic heading plate , which is just a hole in a steel plate for a short run. Re shape the heads using an anvil of some sort and the heading plate . I’ll see if I can find the nail type I think you have and try and show you . I had a few in my hands two days ago but they were all straightened and put back into the base of the Cedar chest of drawers I was working on . That sort of nail is a round wire or shank nail and the head is round but with four sloped sides like a roof . Sort of .

These are called cut nails or dress nails. The only manufacturer that I know of is in the USA Welcome to Tremont Nail Company - Steel Cut Nails for Authentic Restoration Projects and Remodeling

If the Goods and Chattels ones aren't large enough and you only need a few I can probably find some for you. I had about 10 kg of these - original, unused 19th century cut nails about 1 inch long. However, the 2011 flood made a real mess of them so I only bothered to try to save a few with phosphoric acid for the rust. Because of that mine are grey/white.

Thanks for the kind offer but they need to be about 50mm long.

Hi Chris
are these sort of what you are looking for Square-Cut Nails - Lee Valley Tools
To save on postage, if you can wait till July, I can bring some back with me then.
alternatively, I could post a few now and bring the balance back in July.

No Guys! I'm disagreeing with these suggestions going by .

Its a Jacobean revival table . Built in NZ . If you compare to AU its somewhere between 1915 and 1935 . I'm rough on Jacobean revival dates for Victoria so I may be out a little . Clipped flat sided nails with rose or square heads were 50 years before this table . Three and four sided rose heads on round wire nails were from 1890 on roughly . Stamped cross hatched flat heads on round wire type shanks were from the 1920s on
" roughly ".
If Chris takes a nail out, It wont be a square or rectangular shank but a round wire . Id bet a lot on that . $22 roughly .

I wouldn't be paying and shipping Poor Victorian copies . Those things don't resemble real antique nails . Nail making didn't change much from Antiquity through until roughly 1780 on ,it was a hand and hammer operation. From around 1840 / 50 with new mechanisms it changed rapidly every ten or twenty years or so until the 1930s I think ? And none of them look exactly like those not hand made new options.

Here is a pair of original 1890s to 1915 nails on the right, one lying down the other standing . And on the left a pair of new bullet heads the same , The one standing, I re headed in a heading plate today . Using a flat square punch helped me out . Not perfect but with a bit of experimenting you could get there . Just showing what I think you should do Chris .

Rob