Daily AncestorNailer
A nailer made nails, at first by heating iron rod and hammering each point and head by hand, later by tending nail-making machines.
Before machines, every nail was forged one at a time, and making them was a common small trade. Machine-made cut nails, sliced from iron plate, took over from about 1800, and wire nails from about 1860 on; nail factories employed nailers to tend the machines.
The same word could also mean someone who drove nails, but in a census occupation column it almost always means a nail maker.
As seen in a recordOccupation column of the 1850 to 1880 census
Jas. Dunn, 28, Nailer, Nail works
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Daily Ancestor. "Nailer." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/occupations/nailer. Last checked 2026-10-01.