Square Nails

If you were building a log cabin and desired to give it a nostalgic air of rustic authenticity, I’d recommend con- sidering cut nails where nails might be needed. Cut nails were not only highly valued in colonial America, they were very hard to get a hold of. The state of Virginia, in a moment of desperation, enacted a law to prohibit the burning of old homes; a practice made common by pioneers looking to reclaim used nails.

Thomas Jefferson fashioned his own at Monticello and famously wrote in a letter: “In our private pursuits it is a great advantage that every honest employment is deemed honorable. I am myself a nail maker.” My father in law used these nails in many of the finishing details of his early nineteenth century walnut, oak, and poplar wood cabin.