Nails to attach mouldings the old way?

[Kees Heiden]

What kind of nails would have been used, say 300 to 400 years ago, to attach a moulding to a carcass? That probably wasn't a rosehead nail. What sizes? And how would they have been made?

[Pat Barry]

Ahhh! Are you planning to make your own nails now too?

[Kees Heiden]

Well, I'm looking around for an anvil right now. And a nail looks like a fun piece to start my new black smithing career :D

[Zach Dillinger]

You want very small headless brads for attaching period moldings, lengths are dictated by the molding. Tremont makes an ok substitute for actual period nails. I use lots and lots of 'em. I can't speak to how they were made, my blacksmithing knowledge is quite limited.

[Karl Andersson]

Hi Kees,
From what I recall seeing about older furniture construction, mouldings were attached with "L-head" or headless brads, possibly "T-head" nails if larger. All of these shapes allow the head to be sunk under the surface of the wood if the wings of the L and T are oriented with the grain. There were probably regional preferences, though, as well as time differences, but most mouldings were not attached with rose-head or similar "obvious" nails, that I can recall. Chris Schwarz actually wrote a useful blog about nails and their uses recently: http://blog.lostartpress.com/2015/07/11/the-bare-bones-basics-of-nail-technology/

Here is a nice chart of nail shapes; it shoes some T-heads but the L-heads are pretty long for brads in this picture, they're more like staples:
319104

[Kees Heiden]

Thanks for the answers. Maybe this is a bit too ambitious yet, to make such small nails. But it's something to keep in mind. I have now used wire nails, which are completely wrong of course, but hidden behind a bit of wax it's not too obvious.