Gaye Nayton wrote:
>
> I am working in Western Australia. Up to now I have always found that
> Varnum's 1980 identification and dating of nail types has fitted in with the
> dates of my sites. However, I have just found his Rose head IIb nail type
> (ca 1880-1893) at Kalgoorlie in a building which should not have been built
> to at least 1902.
>
> Does anyone else have  similiar examples of this nail type lasting longer
> than Varnum's original research suggested. Has he himeself done any follow
> up work on nail types?
>
> Gaye
> >

Gaye, I don't have specific research or refs, but I have noted that
there are sometimes "late" occurrences of nail types, including the
continuance of wrought nails well into the cut nail period, or the
existence of hand-made rose heads on nails long after drawn wire nails
appear. I have always assumed that either folks were re-using older
nails--a very common practice until the age of very cheap and abundant
nails--or someone who had learned the "old" way found no reason to give
up those ways even after the introduction of new technology. By way of
example, I point to my academic colleagues who write their papers,
exams, etc. on yellow pads with a pencil and then get angry when they
are told there is no longer a "typing pool!" They have, however, done it
that way for forty or fifty years, and they have no inclination whatever
to start finguring out how to use a word processor at this late stage of
life.
--
Dan Mouer
http://saturn.vcu.edu/~dmouer/homepage.htm