Kent mentioned in his fence/corner perpetuation thread that you should look for older staples to age a fence. Fences can be somewhat dated by the wire found.
When were fence staples first used?
Has the design of staples changed like the barbed wire styles or has it been constant?
Here in the East most ancient wire is found on trees, actually sticking out of trees with the staple areas long ago covered by growth. Sometimes the fences are so old rusted and broken off the trees that all one sees are nubs where the bark grew over the wire. Fence posts did not last as long as trees. A majority of rock rows also include a line of trees.
Paul in PA
> Kent mentioned in his fence/corner perpetuation thread that you should look for older staples to age a fence. Fences can be somewhat dated by the wire found.
Actually, what I pointed out was that when fence posts get reused, as in the case that Bruce Small described, one obvious clue to this fact is that there will be at least two sets of staple holes in the posts. The reused posts won't get carefully turned to the same orientation in which they had been in the older fence from which they were removed, so the older staple holes will usually fall on all different faces of the posts as reset.
The oldest barb wire fences I've seen had cut nails, bent over, holding the wire to the cedar posts. Those fences would have been built in the late 1870's and early 1880's.
Some of the oldest fences I have seen in Nebraska had osage orange posts where the wire was fastened to the post with smaller gauge wire. You could not get staples or nails into the hard posts. It wasn't until the use of creosoted posts that staples started to show up.
> It wasn't until the use of creosoted posts that staples started to show up.
I'd be willing to bet that heavy staples of the sort used to fasten barbed wire to fence posts were first manufactured after wire nails.
Introduction of Wire Nails in the US
Just as a footnote, it looks to me as if the manufacture of wire nails in the common sizes used in carpentry and fence building really began in the US during the period from 1886 to 1890. The manufacture of small brads used in cigar box construction predates that period, but those were just specialty nails, not the full spectrum of nails used in construction.
Here's a link to what seems to be an authoritative account:
So far, I've found an account published in 1897 describing the manufacture of fence staples and wire nails by the American Wire Nail Compnay.
Introduction of Wire Nails in the US
OLD NAILS? THE HISTORY NOTED DOESN'T SAY A THING ABOUT HAND FORGED STAPLES MADE BY MEXICANS IN SOUTH TEXAS. EACH IS UNIQUE IN THE BEST AND ONLY DEFINITION OF THE WORD AS Each was forged individually. I will sell but only after a market price is established.
g. gray