Path: ...!npeer.as286.net!npeer-ng0.as286.net!weretis.net!feeder8.news.weretis.net!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!news.eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail From: Mike Spencer Newsgroups: misc.news.internet.discuss Subject: Re: Musk is having a bad week Date: 12 Aug 2024 17:14:34 -0300 Organization: Bridgewater Institute for Advanced Study - Blacksmith Shop Lines: 29 Sender: mds@enoch.nodomain.nowhere Message-ID: <87ed6tebx1.fsf@enoch.nodomain.nowhere> References: <66b5e885$0$1439832$882e4bbb@reader.netnews.com> <87v809dlo8.fsf@enoch.nodomain.nowhere> <1lnmok-uc3.ln1@pyrite.ereborbbs.duckdns.org> Injection-Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2024 22:14:37 +0200 (CEST) Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="808090442c9daab0d99aadc32ef3ca57"; logging-data="3630659"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org"; posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1/e+UaG9KLj6vvaxyzlQKfxtJyiigai7fg=" Cancel-Lock: sha1:+vTXK84nVt3lxZmQ1dAqtmYmBVw= X-Clacks-Overhead: 4GH GNU Terry Pratchett X-Newsreader: Gnus v5.7/Emacs 20.7 Bytes: 2311 kyonshi writes: > On 10 Aug 2024 01:52:23 -0300, Mike Spencer wrote: > >> I've heard it said that some "forty-niners" in rural New England burned >> their houses to retrieve the nails before leaving for California and the >> promised gold. > > Nails back then were not those mass produced things we have nowadays, they > were all hand-wrought by blacksmiths. Yeah, I knew that; I'm a blacksmith. :-o > Only with the introduction of wire nails in the 1860s did that > slowly change. Nails used to be an investment into the future. I'k pretty sure cut nails came first, then wire nails. My house, believed to be built between 1860 and 1880, has hand-forged nails, cut nails, cut nails that have been hand-headed, and wire nails in it. (All turned up when replacing sills, kitchen floor and some interior.) I suspect that they started construction at the earlier date and spent 20 years building it. And never finished as there was partly finished interior when we acquired it in the 1970s. -- Mike Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada