Dead as a door nail.

[Pat Riot]

I found this very interesting. I did not know where this term came from but I do recall my favorite history teacher telling us how folks would recover nails from burnt homes and reuse them as they were all hand made and expensive. He also talked about how wire nails were a big step forward for society. 
 

 

[Charlie Harley, #14153]

I am more informed than I was five minutes ago.  I always thought the expression had something to do with a dead bolt lock.

[Capt. R. Hugh Kidnme]

Good stuff.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

I bet the blacksmith would be happy to have the dead nails.

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

Interesting. Wonder if it's true? (seems logical). For some reason I always thought it was the pin in the hinge. Not that I had any basis, just my thinking since I wasn't familiar with this explanation.

JHC

[Yellowhouse Sam # 25171]

My Daddy was a product of the Depression and frugal to say the least.  My brother and I joked that we didn't realize they sold new nails until near grown up.  Dad expected us to pull old nails from unused sheds and such then straighten them on the anvil.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

I lived in a house built in 1790. The nails were all cut rectangular by a blacksmith. The north and west walls were filled with sawdust. There were four chimneys.

[J-BAR #18287]

“MARLEY was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it: and Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley wasas dead as a door-nail.”

[Crazy Gun Barney, SASS #2428]

[Capt. James H. Callahan]

6 hours ago, Yellowhouse Sam # 25171 said:

My Daddy was a product of the Depression and frugal to say the least.  My brother and I joked that we didn't realize they sold new nails until near grown up.  Dad expected us to pull old nails from unused sheds and such then straighten them on the anvil.

Both my parents too. Poor as snakes. A lot of it rubbed off.

JHC

[Michigan Slim]

My dad grew up as poor as you could be. Always said a man was only one paycheck away from poverty. 

My grandpa reused nails. My dad wouldn't. He was able to buy new and proud of it!

[Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438]

My Dad taught me to straighten used nails on the concrete apron in front of our garage.  Never knew if it was frugality or that he just forgot to buy new, but being a child of the Great Depression, my sense was that he didn't want to spend if he had something perfectly salvageable and the free labor to make it so. 

 

I didn't teach this skill to my boy; but I did show him how to drive new nails straight and true.

 

LL

[J.D. Daily]

I only straighten nails when it is more work to find a new nail than straighten the one I bent.  Back in the late 90's before I learned how to use the internet my daughter & son in law bought house with 5 acres in Valley Springs CA.  There was a barbed wire fenced in area that they wanted to use for a horse paddock.  It had a shelter that was in a very hazardous condition & a large neat pill of late 19th century milled interior wall boards that had been salvaged.  I spent a few weekends knocking down the shelter, then started to move the pill of wall boards that appeared to be in good condition.  After I removed the top layer the rest were in various states of rot.  I wound up burning all the boards.  Besides ash there was 25 lbs. of cut nails.  I kept a few for display & tossed the rest.  I wish I knew about eBay & my daughter didn't know square nails are valuable.