When did they stop using square nails in the South?

Found a recently demolished old home with lots of square nails, but more trash than I've ever seen. It will be tough going...

Around 1900 is timeframe most researchers I know use.

“Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear or a fool from any direction.”

It may not be that simple.
Some old houses I have detected have both square nails and round nails.
I suppose also it would depend on how well off the home owner was.
Around here, if houses either burned downed or were abandoned,
the materials including usable bricks, foundation blocks and nails
that could salvaged were carried to close by homes to be used in
construction. Not much was left that could be reused.
Then there is the possibility that an older house preceded a newer one.
I have seen this many times, for instance, I detect a field that has no
appearance that any house place was ever there but it was an old settlement
that predates the CW.
So I have found flat buttons that predate CW, then CW stuff and since
there were also houses that were built in the same places, I dig up stuff
from the first half of the 20th century.
So the point is there could have been several generations of houses
on the same site and if that is the case, one will find nails, other
trash and good items of different time periods.

I have an elderly friend that built a small barn in 1941 out of a bucket of left-over square nails. BUT......in general......just before the turn of the century.......square nails became quite scarce.

[www.uvm.edu]

VERY good information! Folks.......you can use this to 'date' the site(s) that you hunt.

That is interesting. Most of the nails I find have iron warts on them. I wonder if cleaning them would help to identify them, or would it render them unidentifiable.

Then occupied our fair land...

J

Maybe they should have called it the "Un Civil War". You would think it could have been handeled differently, and not have come to fellow Americans, family and friends fighting & slaughtering each other..... brings tears to my eyes, I bow my head in sorrow.
Jbow, grudges should be burried with our (in my case) Great Great Grandfathers, please don't hold one on me.

ozzie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Maybe they should have called it the "Un Civil
> War". You would think it could have been handeled
> differently, and not have come to fellow
> Americans, family and friends fighting &
> slaughtering each other..... brings tears to my
> eyes, I bow my head in sorrow.
> Jbow, grudges should be burried with our (in my
> case) Great Great Grandfathers, please don't hold
> one on me.

I don't hold grudges, lol.. but neither do I care for Lincoln. IMO, he ended what the founders estabished and it has been dying a sow death ever since. The rest lighthearted... we are all one and have to try and salvage what we can... however I fear our government has already gone over the cliff... sort of like the cartoon character who runs off the edge of the cliff and then stands there, suspended in air until he realizes that he is standing on air... then he falls... way, way down. I fear that is where we now are with our economy.. so all the 'good folk' had better be ready to hang together. We know that we are!

Do you think if thousands of us went to Washington and refused to leave that Obama would resign? Hmm, I doubt it.

J

Jbow, I misunderstood you, I didn't realize it was a lighthearted comment, my apologizies.

Read the book "Broke". Glen Beck the author, will tell you why the economy and our country are in dire straits. It's a depressing read but in some ways it's not because it will give an understanding of why this country is in such a mess.

State's rights vs Federal power.
The Feds grabbed power away from States back then
been going downhill ever since.....
Neither dems or repubs are on our side, it's us and them.
Bunch of criminals run this country.
Hmmm, sorry I realize I have an optimistic outlook, haha.

Still causing trouble after all these years. LOL..........(tongue in cheek humor) Don't get upset.

btw....I am a huge fan of state rights........the Fed has way too much power at this point in time.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2011 08:25PM by TerraDigger.

I thought the subject was nails?

Yea Mdowling, a little digressing happens here time and again, I'm guilty myself, and often.

Hey guys, the Finds Views forum is thataway---->

if anyone is interested. May even be helpful for states surrounding Louisiana. Send request with your email in a PM to me.
Try and get that info on FindMall..........lol



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/11/2011 04:36AM by TerraDigger.