Nail (hardware)

“ The galvanized nails cost from $1.50 to $3 more per keg than the plain cut or wire nails.
The cheaper grades of galvanized nails are frequently coated only with lead, and will not withstand the government test; that is, dipping them into vitriol. A simple way to test the coating of a galvanized nail is to rub the nail on a piece of white paper. A lead-coated nail will mark the paper the same as a lead pencil and should be rejected, as it is only a sham and has no redeeming qualities. ”

“ There is a form of headless wire nail, known as a barbed dowel-pin, which is made as shown in Fig. 3 (k) . This type of nail, or dowel, is used for doweling through the mortises and tenons of sash, blinds, and frames of every description. In the mill, it has displaced the wooden dowel used in former times. The length of pin to be employed is regulated by the thickness of the wood to be secured, as the pins are used 1⁄4 inch shorter than the thickness of the woodwork.
Fig. 4
An exceptionally heavy nail, or spike, is made from heavy wire or round bar. ”

“ When the four grooves were finished, the box was ready for assembling. This called for hammer and nails.
Wire nails are so cheap now that the old-fashioned cut nails have been largely driven from the market.
The nails used on the box were one-inch brads.
The holding power of flat-head nails is of course much greater than bung head, but in this case the box was to be squared up after nailing, exactly as if it were a solid block of wood. This meant planing the sides and ends, and as the nails would ruin the plane iron, they were all sunk below the surface with a nail set or punch. (Fig. 135) . ”

“ Our personal opinion is that the constant use of files, knives, and all steel instruments to the nails is very detrimental to their beauty. The habit of pushing down the quick round the nail with an instrument, or even cutting it away, is a very bad one. ”

“ Nails.—Iron, galvanized-iron, wire, and copper nails are manufactured, but of these the wire nail is the most commonly used for all kinds of work, it being more easily handled, not so liable to snap off, and there being less danger of splitting your work with it than with the iron nails. ”

“ Three thin slats one inch in width and six inches long are made fast across the front, and above the top shelf, to form the pamphlet or periodical rack. The nail and screw heads may be covered with brass upholsterers’ tacks painted black to suggest the idea of a large nail, or imitation wrought-iron nail-heads may be made by cutting disks out of sheet-lead and slightly beating the edges so as to imitate the hammer-marks of wrought-iron work. These disks are secured to the wood with slim steel nails, the heads of which, when driven in with a light hammer, become imbedded in the soft lead. ”

“ With such a machine the nails must necessarily be held in place by some mechanical device until they were guided to and fastened in the board. A nail implies a head larger than its point, and, if it is to be driven vertically, some provision must be made for directing the point carefully to its proper place, and then letting the head pass without obstruction as it is driven. Such clearly was the office of the 'grooved spring jaws' and the 'globe or disk shaped collars' of the plungers in this machine. ”

“ Wire Nails, Staples, &c., are made at Nettlefold's by machinery much in advance of what can be seen elsewhere. In the nail mill the "Paris points" as wire nails are called, are cut from the coil of wire by the first motion of the machine as it is fed in, then headed and pointed at one operation, sizes up to one inch being turned out at the rate of 360 a minute. In the manufacture of spikes, the punch for making the head is propelled by springs, which are compressed by a cam, and then released at each stroke ”

“ These strips, having been cut into pieces two or three feet in length, are heated to a red heat in a furnace, to be immediately converted into nails, when designed for those of a large size. For small nails, the iron does not require heating.
4. The end of the plate is presented to the machine by the workman, who turns the material over, first one way and then the other; and at each turn a nail is produced. The machine has a rapid reciprocating motion, and cuts off, at every stroke, a wedge-like piece of iron, constituting a nail without a head. ”

“ The fact, that the manufacture of this kind of nails originated in our country, is worthy of recollection.
7. In 1841, Walter Hunt, of New-York, invented a double reciprocating nail engine, which is owned by the New-York Patent Nail Company. This machine works with surprising rapidity, it being capable of cutting five or six hundred ten-penny nails in a minute. One hand can tend three engines, as he has nothing more to do than to place the heated plate in a perpendicular position in the machine. ”

“ The patent sued on in this case is for a machine for nailing boxes, invented by George Wicke. Before this invention nails were driven singly, and by hand. By the machine more than one could be driven at the same time.
In the description of the invention which accompanied the application for the patent, the inventor said, in effect, that it consisted in the employment of grooved spring jaws for the purpose of holding the nails and guiding them to their places, combined with a corresponding number of rising and falling plungers for driving each nail singly and at the same time. ”

“ We next visited the Union Rolling-mill, near the city, on the bank of the Monongahela; here also is a nail factory. In the II.168 patent-office at Washington I saw upwards of seventy different models of nail-making machines. In this factory they were cut by horizontally moving shears, and at the same time the heads were formed by a hammer. A workman can make a hundred and fifty pounds of the smaller kind of nails daily. The preparation of the iron plates from which cut nails are made is very interesting. The crude pig iron is made white hot in the furnace ”

“ We have seen that our cautious parent had taken good care not to let her American children learn the use of her tools any farther or faster than she thought good for them—and herself. They no sooner got their hands free than they set them at work on various new contrivances. One of the first was the nail-cutting machinery which has been in use ever since. All our old houses—the old gambrel-roofed Cambridge mansions, for instance—are built with wrought nails, no doubt every one of them imported from England. ”

“ Plate 27, at figs. 2 and 3, gives a representation of the present Machine; which forms the nail almost instantaneously, by many contacts of the stampers a b, (fig. 3) on one of which the figure of the nail is engraven—or rather filed across that stamper, for no hollow figure is required by this System.
The second stamper c d fig. 3, whose place is at A fig. 2, is quite plain on it’s face; being destined merely to keep the metal to it’s thickness—as the particular nail here intended, is a floor nail, requiring a head on two sides only. As to the figured stamper b a, fig. ”

“ Fasten the metal to a thick board by inserting screws in these holes. 5. With a 20-penny wire nail that has the sharpness of its point filed off, stamp the background promiscuously. By holding the nail about 1/4 in. above the work and striking it with the hammer, at the same time striving to keep it at 1/4 in. above the metal, very rapid progress can be made. This stamping lowers the background and at the same time raises the design. 6. Chase or stamp along the border of the design and background, using a nail filed to chisel edge. ”

“ If the large, oval-headed nails which hold the picture to the board cannot be had at your hardware store, imitation heads may be cut from lead, blackened, and fastened on with two or three fine steel-nails. ”

“ The nails which hold the outer covering should either be set and puttied, or the heads should be left even with or slightly above the surface of the wood, that the paint may cover all parts of the nail head. If the nails are driven too far in the heads are not fully covered and protected by the paint, in which case they will rust and present an unsightly appearance. ”

“ The strips connecting the uprights, and forming a box-like frame, should be only secure enough to keep the frame in shape. The nails in the strips must be driven just far enough to hold, leaving the head and enough of each nail above-board to render it a simple task to withdraw the nails when you wish to remove the strips. ”

“ Brads have smaller, thicker heads, nails have larger, flat heads.
To drive a nail straight, start it straight. The hole cannot be [Pg 10] straightened by bending the nail so that it looks straight after it is partly driven. Many gentle blows with the hammer will often drive a nail where heavy blows would fail. The fingers pinching the nail often prevent its bending. ”

“ For instance, the typical wire-nail machine has a wire-feeding mechanism, a shearing mechanism, an upsetting (forging) mechanism, side-serrating mechanism, and pointing mechanism; it may also have a counting mechanism, a packaging mechanism, an electric motor on its frame for furnishing power; and, in addition, numerous power-transmitting and other machine parts, such as bearings, oil-cups, safety appliances, etc. The applicant may have made a complete new organization of nail-machine and may seek a patent for the total combination. ”

“ The value of examining finger-nail deposits becomes evident when we realize that everyone carries away in that fashion a sample of every bit of material he handles. To touch a piece of cloth, even lightly, will result in the catching of a few of its fibers. Similarly, the finger nails will deposit either a small or large portion of their accumulation upon such things as the knife blades or files used to clean them; and there identification still is possible. Nothing in the world is too infinitesimal for use as evidence beneath the microscope. ”

“ XXIII While Thane was thinking how to set the nail mill in order, John, sitting in the hotel lobby with his feet in the window, gnawing a cigar, was reflecting in another sphere. His problem was the nail industry at large. It was in a parlous way. Although cut iron nails had been made by automatic machines for a long time there had recently appeared a machine that displaced all others, because it made the nail complete, head and all, in one run, and was very fast. ”

“ In large nails the taper of the shank and point is secured by the sectional form to which the strips are rolled; brads, sprigs and small nails, on the other hand, are cut from uniform strips in an angular direction from head to point, the strip being turned over after each blank is cut so that the points and heads are taken from opposite sides alternately, and a uniform taper on two opposite sides of the nail, from head to point, is secured. The machines turn out nails with wonderful rapidity, varying with the size of the nails produced from about 100 to 1000 per minute. ”

“ A nail is driven through the outer end of the piece D and the end cut off so that it will pass over the piece B when the dial is turned. When the dial is pulled out slightly and then turned toward the right, the nail will catch on the piece B and open the latch. ”

“ A finishing nail, that is, a nail having a head only a shade larger than the shank, is used for the finer kinds of woodwork. After you have driven in a nail until its head is within, say, 1⁄8 inch of the surface put the small, hollow end of your nail set on it, hold them together with your thumb and forefinger and drive it in by hitting the nail set with your hammer. After the head is sunk below the [11] surface of the wood fill in the hole with a wood filler [7] when neither the nail nor the hole can be seen. ”

“ When, however, the nailing to be done is of such a kind that it becomes necessary that the nail should pass through the wood so as to come out upon the other side, to be clinched there, the stiffness of the iron in a cut-nail constitutes a serious difficulty ”

“ Clumsy nails spoil good work, as the holes made by them are larger than the awl used in stitching. Very fine nails do not spoil the work, and can be obtained in sizes suitable for heavier and clumsier work; and they may be used over and over again if care is taken in pulling them out with the nail-claw. Cut tacks are used in putting gig saddles together, in nailing the leather to the tree, in adjusting panels in the gullet and behind, between the two prongs of the crupper staples, for nailing seats in riding saddles, etc. ”

“ Fig. 33.—Setting Nails.
You will notice the iron nails have two smooth sides and two rough ones. In using these it is necessary to drive them with the smooth sides parallel with the grain, otherwise they are sure to split the work.
Nails are classified according to their shape and gauge. The only kinds you will probably ever have [Pg 36] occasion to use are the Common, or nail for all ordinary work; the Finishing-nail, with the small head used on finish work; and the Brad, or small-sized finishing-nail. ”

“ Oval steel nails are nicely shaped, very tough, and are less likely to split the material than any other kind of nail; slight shallow grooves in the shank increase the holding power. Brads are known in more than one variety. The cut-steel large brad is used in flooring, and does not make such a large hole as a cut nail. The cut-steel small brad is used for general purposes. French nails are of round wire, pointed, and have round, flat heads; they are strong, but their unsightly heads cause their use to be confined to rough work.
Fig. ”