Hi.  In 1983 we dug an Ozark farmstead (Moser site).  We counted
thenails of course, because you are supposed to.  Then I compared our
counts (not forms, just counts) to recommended amounts in a contemporary
(1920) industrial arts carpentry manual.  We didn't find enough to build
a single wooden wall (studs, clapboards, interior sheathing), much less
enough to build a house.  Now I did know that the house (and the
outbuildings) had been taken down and salvaged, from an informant.  The
lack of correlation between nails found and nails needed reminded me of
similar lack of correlations, in faunal material, ceramics, glassware,
etc., where we never find enough to account for whatever was used or
consumed at a site, even when we have good data on acquisition.  I was
happy to write off ever having to deal with nails again (rusty, boiling
in vinegar makes the neighbors unhappy, etc.).  Except then Amy Young
did her experimental work (as noted in the Rotestein post).  So now I
continue to recover the nails, and maybe look for diagnostics in form or
manufacture, but I don't think about counting them seriously until way
down the list of priorities.  If it hadn't been for Amy, I probably
wouldn't even save them, maybe.  See Stewart-Abernathy 1986 Moser,
published by the ArkArchSurvey.   Bye.
 
Leslie C. Stewart-Abernathy
Arkansas Archeological Survey
Arkansas Tech University
Russellville, AR