nail-rod

Definitions

n. A strip split or cut from an iron plate to be made into wrought nails.
n. In Australia, a coarse dark tobacco smoked by bushmen: named from the shape of the plug, which looks like a thin flat stick of licorice. The name is also applied to any coarse stick of tobacco. E. E. Morris, Austral English.

Sorry, no etymologies found.

But "nail-rod" is ninepence a stick out here, an 'I have ter pay carriage.

Children of the Bush
But he very soon followed me, and, cutting a rod, beat me severely, and then told me to "go again and tell my mistress that he had hit me with a nail-rod, if I wanted to."

The narrative of Bethany Veney : a slave woman,
Jehu Nimshi! thar he were right dab at my heels, head up, tongue out, and red as a nail-rod, and his eyes like two balls uv fire, red as chain lightnin. '

Fisher's River (North Carolina) Scenes and Characters
Forthwith, the chests were dragged out; the dark places explored; and two sticks of nail-rod tobacco, and several old "chaws," thrown aside by sailors on some previous voyage, were their cheering reward.

Redburn. His First Voyage