Tuesday Trivia Tie-in #7 Home Improvement

Welcome to Tuesday Trivia Tie-in. Each Tuesday readers are invited to share a blog post about one of their collection and a bit of related trivia.

This feature was inspired by a great deal I got on an entire rack of ties at an indoor flea market. Added to the ties I already had, I realized I had quite a collection of neat ties.

This week I will also be joining the following fun blog parties, be sure and check them out as well:



Ruby Tuesday at Work of the Poet, because my tie this week is red.

Color Carnival because red is a color.

2nd Time around Tuesday at A picture is Worth 1,000 Words, because this tie came from the indoor flea market,

and Nifty Thrifty Tuesday, at Coastal Charm because I got such a good deal on it.

My tie this week was one of my fabulous .28 cent flea market ties. When I saw it, I knew I just had to have it, not for me, but for my father-in-law.

I stopped on the way home and gave it to him, and he graciously allowed me to take some pictures of it to show on my blog.

This is one of the Home Improvement series, designed, and produced by Touchtone Pictures and Television, inspired by the TV show with Tim Allen.

This tie is titled Under Tim's Work Table.


This is the part where one would expect some Tim Allen Trivia or maybe something about the show. Well... surprise!

Let's talk about nails!

The reason I immediately thought of my father-in -law when I saw this tie is that pulling nails is a hobby of sorts with him. Born and raised in a time where nails equaled money, much like MY father, Diann's dad learned to save, and straighten, and reuse nails.

Although any more, the cost of nails vs. the time and work involved reusing them is no longer the same, nail pulling became like therapy to him. When he gets stressed, when he needs some time alone or some time to think, you can always find him out in the garage, pulling nails from scrap wood.

It has become something of a running joke. He even pulls the nails from firewood before he burns it. He just can't stand the sight of a board with a nail sticking out of it. When he retired, we joked that as a gift we were going to get him a railroad tie studded with hundreds and hundreds of nails so he would always have something to keep him busy.

So, this tie is his now, and I am dedicating this article to him. May he always have a nail to pull and a hammer to pull it with.



Nails have been around a long time. How long you ask? Well, Bronze nails have been found in Egypt, dating back to 3400 BC. There are references in The Bible to nails... How can we ever forget that infamous verse in Judges 4:21, where Jael, wife of Heber, went to Sisera, the captain of Jabins army and:

"...took a nail of the tent, and took an hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died."

Indeed! I would think he would!




Nails are generally used for much less gruesome purposes today, with over 2,200 varieties being manufactured for everyone from the builder to the crafter.

In fact, Paul Fourshee, of Fourshee Building Supply in Cadiz, Kentucky wrote in his article A Two-bit History of Nails:

" Just prior to the American Revolution, England was the largest manufacturer of nails in the world. Nails were virtually impossible to obtain in the American Colonies so it was quite common for families to have a small nail manufacturing setup in their homes by the fireplace. During bad weather and at night, entire families made nails not only for their own use but also for barter.

This was not a practice restricted to the lower classes, Thomas Jefferson was quite proud of his hand made nails. In a letter he wrote, “In our private pursuits it is a great advantage that every honest employment is deemed honorable. I am myself a nail maker.” From the president to the pioneer, nail making was an important facet of life. Jefferson was among the first to purchase the newly invented nail-cutting machine in 1796 and produce nails for sale.

Such value was placed on nails that it was common practice, when moving, to burn one’s home in order to retrieve them."

Now, raise your hand if you know what is meant by a "Six Penny Nail".

Aren't you glad you tuned in today? You are about to find out!

The term “penny”, as it refers to nails, is thought to have originated in medieval England to describe the price of 100 nails. 100 3-1/2” nails would cost 16 pence, (16 penny nails), while 100 2-1/2” nails could be bought for 6 pence (6 penny nails). This system of classifying nails by size according to price was in place by 1477 AD. The letter “d”, which means penny, stands for the Latin name given to Roman Coins, Denarius.

The size of the nail is determined by measuring its length. Nails start at 2d, which is 1” in length, and range up to 60d which is 6” in length.





Ok, Now it's your turn. Enter your link below. Make sure you link to your post and not just your main blog.

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Be sure and join me each Tuesday for Tuesday Trivia Tie-in, where readers are invited to share trivia and show off their treasures.
For a complete list of the rules, click here.