Sensing that I've "been had" by Mark,
> Was the kitchen range good and soft after you annealed it?  :). Ha, sorry. 

I will have to share that with my daughter!  We annealed some used farrier's
nails using the range for a heat source.  She wanted to re-use these nails as
part of an artwork with used horse shoes.

> Great advice, I will fire the whole lot of these next time I get a bonfire
going. I have a fry basket around here somewhere that would be perfect.

I think you could get useful annealing by just tossing them into a bonfire.
Recover them from the ashes with a magnet after everything has cooled.

Clinching nails can be obtained from Breton's Village Trunk Shop.  I recently
showed my other daughter how to clinch nails in connection with replacing trunk
hardware . It proved very easy to clinch these soft nails.

John