Referencing the USA only:
By 1940, zinc was well short of needed supplies. Steel reached that
status in early 1942. I mention zinc because it was fairly typical to
coat nails with zinc in those days. You still find such nails today,
but the practice is nowhere hear as common as it was back then. With
both metals in short supply, I would guess (only a guess) that there
was such a shortage.
But consider: Autos were no longer made (except for the military).
Spare parts were available only by scavanging from junk yards. Simple
tools such as bread cutters wore out and were not replaceable, so
bread eventually came unsliced and you had to slice it yourself.
Bicycle pumps that wore out couldn't be replaced. Saws that bent or
broke weren't replaced. Etc.
The point is, "new" stuff came to a halt. Everything, everywhere. New
houses or remodeling were rare things, as lumber for anything short of
military and industrial needs was hard to come by. Houses were built,
sure, but not that many. So even if there was a shortage of nails, it
wouldn't have affected a house all that much. If you drop nail
production to 10% of pre-war levels, and drop housing to 10% also,
well, the net result is little or no effect.
Most common metals were once again in good supply by mid- to
late-1944, and to the extent manpower was available to work on
civilian projects or manufacture civilian goods, the "dry spell" was
over. The situation steadily improved through the end of the war.
If perchance you're asking because you're thinking of buying a house
built during the war, I can only tell you what I'd do. Get a home
inspector who will crawl into the attack and under the foundation (if
it's elevated) and have them look. Use a metal detector to scan the
walls near the floor and ceiling (you can get a cheap hand-held one
used by woodworkers to detect nails in recycled lumber before they
ruin their saws on them).
I am unable to find any specific reference to nails in the USA.
However, there are many reference books in your library, and tons of
internet sites (google for "WWII metal shortage" or "WWII steel
shortage") and you'll see how short supplies were. There were
"scrap-iron" drives in most communities where people tossed old steel
things onto a heap and it was carted away for reuse. But again, this
only happened for a couple of years until the USA got its mining
efforts into full swing. Once that happened, such drives be came a
thing of the past as mines were delivering ore to smelters at record
levels. |
