Nailer

[jennyblain]

In the 18th century - I'm assuming this is one who makes nails, i.e. a blacksmith specialising in this work? Anybody with more info?

I seem to have two generations of them in Kilmarnock... Oh joy, finally a link between families!

Jenny

[paddyscar]

Hi Jenny:

By selecting the Sources tab at the top of this page, you will find a link to many helpful sites including http://www.scotroots.com/occupations.htm which states 'Nailer - Blacksmith who made nails by cutting and shaping metal'

An expanded outline of the work, click here http://rmhh.co.uk/occup/files/nailors.wri . This site also states that a nailer 'Maintained the teeth (nails) on the carding machine used on wool & cotton before weaving'.

Frances

[jennyblain]

Thanks Frances. The second link would seem to be the kind of thing I'm looking for - 'more info' maybe about the conditions of work etc. But alas it seems to be a specialised windows 'write' file, whatever that is!

I'm interested in finding out, particularly, if it's likely to be a family business with a forge owned by the family and sons working there learning the trade. Any further info that's accessible to non-windows users (and is not simply a definition)?

Best,
Jenny

[LesleyB]

Hi Jenny
My browser handled the file OK - it just opened the file using Word Pad as a helper application. Here is the text, just incase you were not able to view it:

Nailors \ Naylors

In the early 19c, in the neighbourhood of Birmingham alone, 60,000 people - men, women and children - were involved in the hand manufacture of iron nails.
They turned out something like 200 tons of nails, of numerous varieties and levels of quality, every week. Commonly an entire family would work together, confining themselves to a particulare class of nail.
There were about 300 sorts of wrought or forged iron nails alone. Specific names suggested the uses to which they were put - dec, wheelwright, hurdle, mop, etc.
Further divisions such as rose, clasp, clasp, diamond, pearl and sunken described the shape of the nail head; and flat, sharp, spear, needle and referred to their points. The terms fine, bastard and strong described their thickness.
The very finest quality nails were used for horseshoes; each nailrequired at least 35 blows of the hammer to draw it out fine enough to prevent it from cracking or breaking off in the horse's hoof.
Most nails required at least 25 blows of the hammer to form them. When the shank had been drawn out from the red hot rod to the required length, it was inserted into a heading tool, cut, turned and struck on the anvil. During this brocess, the bellows had to be worked several times.
The workers who forged the nails on the anvil were known as Nailors or Naylors. Each could make as many as four nails a minute - that's up to 3,000 a day.
What has happened to the traditional nail maker has happened to many other classes of industrial worker, who have seen their crafts swallowed up by automated processes or superceded by new inventions.

Best wishes
Lesley

[jennyblain]

Ah, thanks Lesley. I use a Mac so cannot read some of these windows things!

This gives some info - though the Kilmarnock situation in the late 18th c. may have been a little different (in terms of numbers at least).

It is the family connection and the sense of small-industry here that most interests me. I have a John Mushet 'nailer' in 1804 - and have today found that the most likely father for him, James Mushet, is described as 'nailer' also, in the records of births of his children in at least 1772 and 1784, the latter being (most possibly) John's the nailer's birth. So this connection through work may take me back another generation in that line.

That aside (this is to Lesley or others with a Dundee connection - OK other side of the country!), how is Dundee these days? I drove through in January, heading north to a conference.. I spoke with the woman in the house opposite the one I grew up in. She is very elderly now and has a huge wealth of history to tell, of the street and the city.

All best,
Jenny