Make your own hand forged nails

When I first became interested in period furniture, I had this romanticized view of it, so it came as quite a shock to find that my perception and reality weren’t in sync. One of the things that surprised me the most was the fairly extensive use of nails. Where I would have expected a glue joint, or at the very least a screw, I found that nails were more common. In retrospect this makes sense, glue required clamps, holding up production (nails were sometimes used as clamps) and while nails were somewhat expensive, screws were even more so, and took longer to install.

At first I purchased reproduction cut nails. These had the period look, but each one was exactly the same, so I ended up doing a little hand forging to give them some individuality. I will admit I dislike cut nails. Despite the fact that they crush the fibers ahead of the point, they still have a tendency to split, and their tapered shape makes a pilot hole a compromise. Of course they do offer tremendous holding power, but in furniture they are used where they are loaded mostly in shear, so this is of lesser importance.

At some point I read about a restorer, who used common upholstery tacks that were hand worked and used to conceal modern nails and the idea hit me to take common wire nails and forge my own.

Use only uncoated common wire nails, I don’t know what if any effects heating a cement coated nail would have, but for safety sakes I avoid them. I do know that heating galvanized nails will release a toxic gas.

I have used nails from 4 to 10 penny. I look for nails that have fairly thick heads; some of the box and sinkers nails have head that are too thin to forge. Start by heating the head until it glows yellow and hammer it on its side, drawing out the head. Then rotate it 90 degrees and strike it a few times to square up the “ends”; you don’t want a square head, but you also don’t want a long narrow head.

The rest of the process can be done with the head cold. I have used two different methods to further form the head. The first is simply holding the nail in the vise a hammering the head to shape. The other involves a stout block of steel with a hole the approximate size of the nails shank.

In looking at period nails, the most common head shapes were ones with either 3 or 5 facets to the head, although not every blacksmith got that memo. I like the look of the head with 5 facets.

One of my favorite memories of the first furniture show I went to, is of an older gentleman, not looking at the front of the desk I had on display, but instead the back; he said “nice work sonny, right down to the nails” I said “yep they are “forged” ( as in a fake signature).

From left to right the photos below show, (click on any photo to see a larger version)

The heated head ready to be flattened on the “anvil” portion of a machinists vice

The head being formed while the shank is held in the vice

The head being formed while held in a block of steel

The progression of the nail from, factory, to having the head flattend, having the ends squared, a three facet nail, and a five facet nail.

                                                                 Rob Millard

Comments

[Sam Tinsley]

Thanks for the great article on forged nails.Although I am a hobby woodworker ,I always enjoy finding ways to make my work look hand made &traditional.I look forward to each new blog.
Sam

[Christopher Schwarz]

Rob,

Fantastic post! I am going to have to try this myself. Quick question: Is an ordinary propane torch the ideal tool to heat the nails?

Thanks,

Chris

[Robert Millard]

Chris,

In the photo I used a torch with a MAP gas cylinder, but I have also used regular propane to heat the nails and it worked just as well.
Thanks for taking the time to look at the blog.
Rob Millard