Traditionally, must be made of iron and taken from the coffin of an actual occupied grave. Care must be taken to honor the spirit of the grave these nails have come from. Any iron nail can be substituted for a slightly weaker version of the magic of coffin nails. 

 A FEW USES OR RITUALS WITH COFFIN NAILS:

PROTECTION---

Tapped into the steps and just before the main entrance to the house, they are said to keep malentended people from carrying their bad magic into your house to drop off and leave behind when they go.  This is similar to Pliny the Elder's spell.

Take a coffin nail and set it in a place where the rising sun will shine on it, then scrape off any rust and dirt till the nail is shiny, and this makes it a protective talisman when carried in a small flannel bag.

 A variation on the above  ritual  to protect yourself from all dangers, carry a coffin nail in your pocket in a case or pouch of some kind, or wrapped in brown silk. As long as this is in your pocket, no one can successfully perform any vengeful spell against you.

Another protective use for coffin nails is to have one always soaking in a bath of oil or salts which you use. 

Or you can tie the nail in a dark colored handkerchief or a small cloth. Then place that in the tub when you run the hot water. After the bath is full, take the nail out and keep it for re-use each time you bathe. It is believed that many evil forces can be washed away by this method.

If you cannot use railroad spikes to nail down your house the nails are good to use especially if they have been buried in the graveyard dirt of a solider, police officer or banker,  just be sure to nail down all 4 corners of your property.  Then on the Full Moon feed them with a mixture of whiskey, Fiery Wall of Protection Oil, your own urine, Peace water and Money House Blessing Oil, you don't need to use a lot a few drops will do, then say each time you feed them "This is MY home, and I will Not be moved, I will Not be harmed, my Family, pets and property is protected in the name of the Most Holy Trinity, the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Amen".

This is just a few of the positive rituals you can do, there are many, many more out there so I will let you have the fun of finding them, Love rituals done with pins can also be done with coffin nails but again chose the correct graveyard dirt of someone who loved you, not from someone who was cruel to you.  

NEGATIVE WORKINGS~~~

I'm usually loath to give out ritual workings that are negative in nature, but sometimes one has to take steps against those who seek to do you harm.

Almost any working using a doll or wax effigy and instead of pins using coffin nails soaked in Black Arts Oil will be highly effective.

One that I came across was very similar to one that one of the ladies in Granny's group did to get rid of the man who had raped her daughter, this was back in the late 1950's the man had connections and would not be brought to justice.  But you just don't get a Mama Tiger mad.  And Della was mad and so was her sister, and so were the rest of the ladies.

I post it here only because a variation of it is on the internet, so I know if one goes looking for it they will find it----BUT and I cannot stress this enough---if you do it, never-ever Tell anyone, because then it can back fire on you.

Purchase bees wax candles that would be used in a church, you can purchase such candles on line from church supply company's , mold the wax  making what is called an 'effigy'.  Now if you can, get some of your enemy's hair and/or clothing or clippings of their finger/toe-nails.  Put them at the appropriate place on the  effigy.  Name the effigy, take a plain nail and write their name or who they were, on the front of the effigy.

In Della's case her daughter had her ripped panties stained with his semen, which the detectives did not even take as evidence.  So the part with the semen was cut out and put on the effigy in the genital area.

 When she had made it, she  then set put it on the altar in the meeting space at Granny's house.

The link between the rapist and the daughter was sealed with some blood pricked from the daughter's finger, you can use some blood that you can get from the butcher's, some cuts of beef will have blood gathered in the plastic trays.

The effigy was smeared on the head and genital area with the blood.   This was done in candle-light and no matter what it needs to be done in candle-light and candle light only.

To activate the spell, (and this was hard for everyone) the Lord's prayer was recited backwards. And in the middle of reciting it the coffin nail was hit home with a hammer deep into the heart area of the effigy. 

Then as they chanted the words "Die, Die" over and over again it was important to imagine the person being penetrated with a huge sword,  the effigy was put into a box and left on the Altar for 3 days, and every day the ladies came and prayed and focused on the death of that man.

 After 3 days  the effigy with the coffin nail, and the piece of panties  with the semen pined to it was removed from the box and wrapped in a clean white cloth and tied up tight with several large heavy stones, at midnight they drove to a bridge that was over the nearest body of deep water and threw the effigy into the water.

Within a month he died in a house fire that he was trapped in, the amazing thing is everyone else got out safely, but they saw him trapped in the upstairs window, flames all around him as he burned to death.  No one could understand why he didn't get out, he had plenty of time to escape.

If you do this spell NEVER-EVER Tell anyone you did it, results may not happen right away but they will happen.  Never take any public credit for the death, tell NO ONE.  If you do, they'll

lock you up or consider you a suspect of what may appear to  authorities to be a murder.

Once the ladies had done the spell and completed it they never spoke if it again except to remark about his death when they read of his death in the newspaper.  But Never-Ever about the Ritual.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Remember this spell is extremely powerful and is used in place of physical violence.   Once the spell is done forget about the person, they no longer exist, because their soul will be in everlasting torment because this persons soul will never go to heaven, unless someone finds the effigy remove the nail using a reverse magical ritual.

I've seen this done with scissors, but the ladies considered using good scissors as an expensive waste, but a coffin nail that was buried in the graveyard dirt of an executed murderer was considered perfect.

If one is to use scissors see if you can buy used scissors at a yard sale or 2nd hand junk store, even a rusty scissors will do.

JUST REMEMBER NEVER EVER TELL ANYONE AND NEVER EVER DO IT OUT OF SPITE, it has to be serious injury.

And what happened to Della's daughter?  She recovered, especially when she read about her rapists death, it was important for her to take part in the ritual, which seemed to give her satisfaction.   She eventually met a really nice young man, but she was honest with him she told him about what happened to her when he was getting serious, but it didn't stop him, he asked her to marry him and they were very happy, had several children a number of grandchildren and passed away within a year of each other several years ago.

In terms of other coffin nail rituals, there are many on the internet Ms. Q, I have found them here and there and many match up with what my Granny and her ladies did.