Anyone know about hand wrought nails?

pulled this hand wrought nail out of this table. Clearly really old. There’s probably 10+ types of nails in this table which seem to date to their respective repairs on the table. The legs don’t seem to be original to the rest of the piece. Anyone know about these nails? It’s about 5/8 of an inch

 

Looks like a horseshoe nail.

 

We are still on the topic of this table, are we not?

Help me date this old burled table please

 

Yeah. Anyone know any actual experts on primitive furniture/old growth lumber I can get in contact with?

 

here’s another, different nail. Definitely ain’t no 50 year old reproduction.

 

likely not........but u can't judge a table by it's nails only.
Many a carpenter has used whatever nails they had at hand..... and even old boards with nails already in place.

 

Your table was found in Tennessee, so the US.
Still used in the US in the 19th century:



It would be good to know which part of the table you pulled it from. As said in the other thread, the table looks to be made from pieces from different periods.

Btw, there are similar handwrought nails, only much smaller, in the frame of an early 20th century Cuzco School (Revival) painting I own.

 

Ditto.

 

Don’t worry, I’m not! The nails were kind of the last piece of the puzzle. Theres at least 12 other types of nails in this piece. The dowel holes in all 4 corners (original to old legs) and matching saw marks show the top is original to itself. One day I’ll try and figure out how to pull one of the large structural nails which I’m sure are even older. If anyone knows someone with a large primitive collection or an expert on primitive furniture let me know!

 

I found it in Tennessee within the past few years but zero idea where it was before that. It belonged to my sisters college roommate who’s from out of state. These small nails were pulled from somewhere on the surface and not structural. Whenever they added the hinged legs, they did an entire re nailing job on the piece with modern nails and took some kind of grinder to all the nails sticking out of the surface. I’ll see if i can get to one of the old structural ones, but over the years they have been driven in further or pulled.

 

This isn't considered primitive furniture, that would be tribal etc. Here in Europe your table would be called folk furniture.

But this isn't European. You need someone specialized in American furniture, like verybrad and Drew, who have already replied in the other thread. I would agree with their suggestion that it was constructed in the 20th century from older bits and pieces.
Bear in mind that your table is not a specific style, and there are no specialists for furniture that was assembled from bits and pieces found in a workshop or in a neighbour's barn.

 

My first time looking at this post. You seem to be asking - how old is the top of this bodgered table?

A first step would be identifying the species of wood, which will probably require a direct examination by a knowledgeable person. This may allow you to determine if it is actually American in origin, or possibly from somewhere else. If you know an approximate region, it may be possible to figure out when old growth timber of the correct species was still readily available. This would might provide a beginning point for a possible date.

Dating by evidence such as saw marks can vary depending on where the wood originated and was worked. Mechanical innovations in saws were adopted at different times in different places. Some places still use technologies that are ancient.

That said, this website provides an excellent discussion of the chronology of tool marks, and includes photographs -
https://inspectapedia.com/structure/Lumber_Cutting_Methods.php

Using nails or other hardware for dating is most useful for establishing a "time after which" the construction must have occurred. Hand wrought nails continued to be made and used up through the early 19th century, with a gradual transition to machine cut nails beginning after 1790. Various forms of cut nails were developed during the 19th century, and continue to be made today. Round wire nails first appear in Europe during the first half of the 19th century, and in the U.S. in the 1850s. These early wire nails were small in size, and used only for small articles rather than construction. They did not become the dominant type of nail, including larger sizes, until the 1890s.

 

I should add that using nails for dating is only helpful if the nails are original to the construction.

As for wood identification, you might try searching for wood science specialists at the University of Tennessee (or other university near you).