3/13/2023 1 Comment Nails or screws?There is some to be debate on which is stronger screws or nails?
Nails have been used for centuries as a means to join two pieces of wood together. The oldest nails were individually made by blacksmiths. Once so valuable that laws were passed to prevent early settlers from burning down their houses in order to reclaim them. Modern nails are made from steel wire and remain flexible even after being stamped into shape. For the last 175 years nails have been manufactured by machines and perhaps only in the last 60 years these nails have been placed on strips and later in coils for nail guns. This has made assembly of homes and other structures much faster, and I’m sure has saved quite a few elbows as well. The best nail for building is a spiral nail, as the name suggests it spins into the wood as it penetrates, making it much more difficult to remove. A screw is a further advancement on this but requires a great deal more effort in it’s application. It definitely has more holding strength than a nail but because of the way most screws are made with soft steel being shaped and then hardened it becomes brittle. I know I have over tightened or screwed into knots or dense material and snapped a few heads off myself. Lumber used in construction is naturally flexible and when floors combined with walls and then roofs all made from this naturally flexible material are exposed to high winds, heavy loads or natural disasters like an earthquake, it makes sense to not have a connector that might snap, as the old adage goes it is “better to bend than to break”. As for me, I have seen firsthand how a spiral nail into damp Lumber that is allowed to dry for sometime becomes nearly impossible to remove so my inclination will always be to use a nail over a screw, but not just any nail, a full head spiral nail! Gerry Shown below are (from bottom left) smooth shank nail, spiral shank nail, coarse threaded wood screw, half head nail, full head nail and above those are examples of strip and collated nails
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2/4/2024 10:22:16 am
Thanks for sharing a good and informative blog.
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