"Were it not for the lesser nobility of the material, I would say that the smith working in iron should rightly take precedence over the goldsmith because of the great benefits that he brings to mankind". Taken from an XVIth century treatise on metalworking by V.Biringuccio

What would have been civilization without nails? These are known since antiquity, and this is a very old trade. In France their corporation was one of the few to be allowed to work by night, they were wearing short trousers and plait of hair. The trade needed 7 years of apprenticeship. A good worker could produce 1500 nails a day.



Farrier nails needed 20 hammer blows; some specialty nails 32, and more of a hundred different nails were in use at that time. Cut nails came by the end of the XVIIIth century, and the nail making machine was invented in 1777 in Rhode Island, and these were quickly able to produce 200 to 300 nails per minute.