Nail (fastener)

Last updated
Nail
Clou 127.jpg
A metal nail
ClassificationFastener
Used withWood, concrete

In woodworking and construction, a nail is a small object made of metal (or wood, called a tree nail or "trunnel") which is used as a fastener, as a peg to hang something, or sometimes as a decoration. [1] Generally, nails have a sharp point on one end and a flattened head on the other, but headless nails are available. Nails are made in a great variety of forms for specialized purposes. The most common is a wire nail. [2] Other types of nails include pins , tacks , brads , spikes, and cleats.

Contents

Nails are typically driven into the workpiece by a hammer or nail gun. A nail holds materials together by friction in the axial direction and shear strength laterally. The point of the nail is also sometimes bent over or clinched after driving to prevent pulling out.

History

Nailor's Workshop King's Norton, an etching by Henry Martin Pope (1843-1908) Henry Martin Pope - Nailor's Workshop King's Norton - 1908V135.jpg
Nailor's Workshop King's Norton , an etching by Henry Martin Pope (1843-1908)

The history of the nail is divided roughly into three distinct periods:

From the late 1700s to the mid-1900s, nail prices fell by a factor of 10; since then nail prices have increased slightly, reflecting in part an upturn in materials prices and a shift toward specialty nails. [3]

Hand wrought

Hand-forging a nail, including use of a nail-header
Partly mechanised boat nail production in Hainan, China

In hand-working of nails, a smith works an approximately conical iron pin tapering to a point. This is then inserted into a nail-header (also known as a nail-plate), essentially a plate of iron with a small hole in it. The broad end of the pin is slightly wider than the hole of the nail-header: the smith fits the pin into the hole of the nail-header and then hammers the broad end of the pin. Unable to advance through the hole, the broad end is flattened against the nail-header to create a nail-head. In at least some metalworking traditions, nail-headers might have been identical to draw-plates (a plate bored with tapering holes of different sizes through which wire can be drawn to extrude it to increasingly fine proportions). [4]

The Bible provides a number of references to nails, including the story in Judges of Jael the wife of Heber, who drives a nail (or tent-peg) into the temple of a sleeping Canaanite commander; [5] the provision of iron for nails by King David for what would become Solomon's Temple; [6] and in connection with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The Romans made extensive use of nails. The Roman army, for example, left behind seven tons of nails when it evacuated the fortress of Inchtuthil in Perthshire in Scotland in 86 to 87 CE.

The term "penny", as it refers to nails, probably originated in medieval England to describe the price of a hundred nails. Nails themselves were sufficiently valuable and standardized to be used as an informal medium of exchange.

Until around 1800 artisans known as nailers or nailors made nails by hand – note the surname Naylor. [7] (Workmen called slitters cut up iron bars to a suitable size for nailers to work on. From the late 16th century, manual slitters disappeared with the rise of the slitting mill, which cut bars of iron into rods with an even cross-section, saving much manual effort.)

At the time of the American Revolution, England was the largest manufacturer of nails in the world. [8] Nails were expensive and difficult to obtain in the American colonies, so that abandoned houses were sometimes deliberately burned down to allow recovery of used nails from the ashes. [9] This became such a problem in Virginia that a law was created to stop people from burning their houses when they moved. [10] Families often had small nail-manufacturing setups in their homes; during bad weather and at night, the entire family might work at making nails for their own use and for barter. Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter: "In our private pursuits it is a great advantage that every honest employment is deemed honorable. I am myself a nail maker." [11] The growth of the trade in the American colonies was theoretically held back by the prohibition of new slitting mills in America by the Iron Act of 1750, though there is no evidence that the Act was actually enforced.

The production of wrought-iron nails continued well into the 19th century, but ultimately was reduced to nails for purposes for which the softer cut nails were unsuitable, including horseshoe nails.

Cut

The slitting mill, introduced to England in 1590, simplified the production of nail rods, but the real first efforts to mechanise the nail-making process itself occurred between 1790 and 1820, initially in England and the United States, when various machines were invented to automate and speed up the process of making nails from bars of wrought iron. Also in Sweden in the early 1700s Christopher Polhem produced a nail cutting machine as part of his automated factory. [12] These nails were known as cut nails because they were produced by cutting iron bars into rods; they were also known as square nails because of their roughly rectangular cross section.

The cut-nail process was patented in the U.S. by Jacob Perkins in 1795 and in England by Joseph Dyer, who set up machinery in Birmingham. The process was designed to cut nails from sheets of iron, while making sure that the fibres of the iron ran down the nails. The Birmingham industry expanded in the following decades, and reached its greatest extent in the 1860s, after which it declined due to competition from wire nails, but continued until the outbreak of World War I. [13]

Cut nails were one of the important factors in the increase in balloon framing beginning in the 1830s and thus the decline of timber framing with wooden joints. [14] Though still used for historical renovations, and for heavy-duty applications, such as attaching boards to masonry walls, cut nails are much less common today than wire nails.

Wire

Wire nails are formed from wire. Usually coils of wire are drawn through a series of dies to reach a specific diameter, then cut into short rods that are then formed into nails. The nail tip is usually cut by a blade; the head is formed by reshaping the other end of the rod under high pressure. Other dies are used to cut grooves and ridges. Wire nails were also known as "French nails" for their country of origin. [15] Belgian wire nails began to compete in England in 1863. Joseph Henry Nettlefold was making wire nails at Smethwick by 1875. [13] Over the following decades, the nail-making process was almost completely automated. Eventually the industry had machines capable of quickly producing huge numbers of inexpensive nails with little or no human intervention. [16]

With the introduction of cheap wire nails, the use of wrought iron for nail making quickly declined, as more slowly did the production of cut nails. In the United States, in 1892 more steel-wire nails were produced than cut nails. In 1913, 90% of manufactured nails were wire nails. Nails went from being rare and precious to being a cheap mass-produced commodity. Today almost all nails are manufactured from wire, but the term "wire nail" has come to refer to smaller nails, often available in a wider, more precise range of gauges than is typical for larger common and finish nails. Today, many nails are made using the modern rotary principle nail machine, which allows wire feeding, wire cutting and nail head forming to take place in one continuous process of rotating movements. [17]

Materials

Nails were formerly made of bronze or wrought iron and were crafted by blacksmiths and nailors. These crafts people used a heated square iron rod that they forged before they hammered the sides which formed a point. After reheating and cutting off, the blacksmith or nailor inserted the hot nail into an opening and hammered it. [18] Later new ways of making nails were created using machines to shear the nails before wiggling the bar sideways to produce a shank. For example, the Type A cut nails were sheared from an iron bar type guillotine using early machinery. This method was slightly altered until the 1820s when new heads on the nails' ends were pounded via a separate mechanical nail heading machine. In the 1810s, iron bars were flipped over after each stroke while the cutter set was at an angle. Every nail was then sheared off of taper allowing for an automatic grip of each nail which also formed their heads. [18] Type B nails were created this way. In 1886, 10 percent of the nails that were made in the United States were of the soft steel wire variety and by 1892, steel wire nails overtook iron cut nails as the main type of nails that were being produced. In 1913, wire nails were 90 percent of all nails that were produced. [18]

Today's nails are typically made of steel, often dipped or coated to prevent corrosion in harsh conditions or to improve adhesion. Ordinary nails for wood are usually of a soft, low-carbon or "mild" steel (about 0.1% carbon, the rest iron and perhaps a trace of silicon or manganese). Nails for masonry applications are tempered and have a higher carbon content. [19]

Types

Different types of nails:
1) roofing
2) umbrella head roofing
3) brass escutcheon pin
4) finish
5) concrete
6) spiral-shank
7) ring-shank (a used, bent "gun" nail, with barbs left over from the tool's feed system) Spijkers (Nails).jpg
Different types of nails:
1) roofing
2) umbrella head roofing
3) brass escutcheon pin
4) finish
5) concrete
6) spiral-shank
7) ring-shank (a used, bent "gun" nail, with barbs left over from the tool's feed system)
Horseshoe nails Horseshoe nails for lead came glasswork 01.jpg
Horseshoe nails
Nail-maker's work-bench or anvil in a storeroom of the Black Country Living Museum Nail-makers anvil.jpg
Nail-maker's work-bench or anvil in a storeroom of the Black Country Living Museum
Railroad spikes of the old Jezreel Valley railway (part of the Hejaz Railway), found near Kfar Baruch (Israel) HejazSpike.jpg
Railroad spikes of the old Jezreel Valley railway (part of the Hejaz Railway), found near Kfar Baruch (Israel)
A capped nail for weather wrap A roofing nail.jpg
A capped nail for weather wrap
Nails for nail guns Nails-for-nailer.jpg
Nails for nail guns

Types of nail include:

Sizes

Most countries, except the United States, use a metric system for describing nail sizes. A 50 × 3.0 indicates a nail 50 mm long (not including the head) and 3 mm in diameter. Lengths are rounded to the nearest millimetre.

For example, finishing nail* sizes typically available from German suppliers are:

Length, mmDiameter, mm
201.2
251.4
301.6
351.6
351.8
402.0
452.2
502.2
552.2
552.5
602.5
602.8
652.8
653.1
703.1
803.1
803.4
903.4
903.8
1003.8
1004.2
1104.2
1204.2
1304.6
1405.5
1605.5
1806.0
2107.0

United States penny sizes

In the United States, the length of a nail is designated by its penny size.

penny
size
length, incheslength, mm
(nearest)
2d125
3d1+1433
4d1+1238
5d1+3444
6d251
7d2+1457
8d2+1264
9d2+3470
10d376
12d3+1483
16d3+1289
20d4102
30d4+12114
40d5127
50d5+12140
60d6152

Terminology

In art and religion

Nails have been used in art, such as the Nail Men—a form of fundraising common in Germany and Austria during World War I.

Before the 1850s bocce and pétanque boules were wooden balls, sometimes partially reinforced with hand-forged nails. When cheap, plentiful machine-made nails became available, manufacturers began to produce the boule cloutée—a wooden core studded with nails to create an all-metal surface. Nails of different metals and colors (steel, brass, and copper) were used to create a wide variety of designs and patterns. Some of the old boules cloutées are genuine works of art and valued collector's items.

Once nails became cheap and widely available, they were often used in folk art and outsider art as a method of decorating a surface with metallic studs. Another common artistic use is the construction of sculpture from welded or brazed nails.

Nails were sometimes inscribed with incantations or signs intended for religious or mystical benefit, used at shrines or on the doors of houses for protection. [28]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galvanization</span> Process of coating steel or iron with zinc to prevent rusting

Galvanization or galvanizing is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, to prevent rusting. The most common method is hot-dip galvanizing, in which the parts are coated by submerging them in a bath of hot, molten zinc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wrought iron</span> Iron alloy with a very low carbon content

Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content in contrast to that of cast iron. It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions, which give it a wood-like "grain" that is visible when it is etched, rusted, or bent to failure. Wrought iron is tough, malleable, ductile, corrosion resistant, and easily forge welded, but is more difficult to weld electrically.

A saw is a tool consisting of a tough blade, wire, or chain with a hard toothed edge used to cut through material. Various terms are used to describe toothed and abrasive saws.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hot-dip galvanization</span> Process of coating iron or steel with molten zinc

Hot-dip galvanization is a form of galvanization. It is the process of coating iron and steel with zinc, which alloys with the surface of the base metal when immersing the metal in a bath of molten zinc at a temperature of around 450 °C (842 °F). When exposed to the atmosphere, the pure zinc (Zn) reacts with oxygen (O2) to form zinc oxide (ZnO), which further reacts with carbon dioxide (CO2) to form zinc carbonate (ZnCO3), a usually dull grey, fairly strong material that protects the steel underneath from further corrosion in many circumstances. Galvanized steel is widely used in applications where corrosion resistance is needed without the cost of stainless steel, and is considered superior in terms of cost and life-cycle. It can be identified by the crystallization patterning on the surface (often called a "spangle").

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drill bit</span> Type of cutting tool

A drill bit is a cutting tool used in a drill to remove material to create holes, almost always of circular cross-section. Drill bits come in many sizes and shapes and can create different kinds of holes in many different materials. In order to create holes drill bits are usually attached to a drill, which powers them to cut through the workpiece, typically by rotation. The drill will grasp the upper end of a bit called the shank in the chuck.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Boat building</span> Design and construction of floating vessels

Boat building is the design and construction of boats — and their on-board systems. This includes at minimum the construction of a hull, with any necessary propulsion, mechanical, navigation, safety and other service systems as the craft requires.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">File (tool)</span> Tool used to remove fine amounts of material

A file is a tool used to remove fine amounts of material from a workpiece. It is common in woodworking, metalworking, and other similar trade and hobby tasks. Most are hand tools, made of a case hardened steel bar of rectangular, square, triangular, or round cross-section, with one or more surfaces cut with sharp, generally parallel teeth. A narrow, pointed tang is common at one end, to which a handle may be fitted.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stucco</span> Construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water

Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and artistic material in architecture. Stucco can be applied on construction materials such as metal, expanded metal lath, concrete, cinder block, or clay brick and adobe for decorative and structural purposes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drawing pin</span> Type of fastener

A drawing pin or [thumb] tack, also called a push-pin, is a short, small pin or nail with a flat, broad head that can be pressed into place with pressure from the thumb, often used for hanging light articles on a wall or noticeboard.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treenail</span> Wooden fastener

A treenail, also trenail, trennel, or trunnel, is a wooden peg, pin, or dowel used to fasten pieces of wood together, especially in timber frames, covered bridges, wooden shipbuilding and boat building. It is driven into a hole bored through two pieces of structural wood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sheet metal</span> Metal formed into thin, flat pieces

Sheet metal is metal formed into thin, flat pieces, usually by an industrial process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nail gun</span> Type of power tool

A nail gun, nailgun or nailer is a form of hammer used to drive nails into wood or other materials. It is usually driven by compressed air (pneumatic), electromagnetism, highly flammable gases such as butane or propane, or, for powder-actuated tools, a small explosive charge. Nail guns have in many ways replaced hammers as tools of choice among builders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lath</span> Material used to span gaps in structural framing and form a base on which to apply plaster

A lath or slat is a thin, narrow strip of straight-grained wood used under roof shingles or tiles, on lath and plaster walls and ceilings to hold plaster, and in lattice and trellis work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eyebar</span> Straight metallic bar with a hole ("eye") at each end for fixing to other components

In structural engineering and construction, an eyebar is a straight bar, usually of metal, with a hole ("eye") at each end for fixing to other components. Eyebars are used in structures such as bridges, in settings in which only tension, and never compression, is applied. Also referred to as "pin- and eyebar construction" in instances where pins are being used.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tinsmith</span> Person who makes and repairs things made of tin or other light metals

A tinsmith is a person who makes and repairs things made of tin or other light metals. The profession may sometimes also be known as a tinner, tinker, tinman, or tinplate worker; whitesmith may also refer to this profession, though the same word may also refer to an unrelated specialty of iron-smithing. By extension it can also refer to the person who deals in tinware, or tin plate. Tinsmith was a common occupation in pre-industrial times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plasterwork</span> Construction or ornamentation done in plaster or a similar material

Plasterwork is construction or ornamentation done with plaster, such as a layer of plaster on an interior or exterior wall structure, or plaster decorative moldings on ceilings or walls. This is also sometimes called pargeting. The process of creating plasterwork, called plastering or rendering, has been used in building construction for centuries. For the art history of three-dimensional plaster, see stucco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plasterer</span>

A plasterer is a tradesman or tradesperson who works with plaster, such as forming a layer of plaster on an interior wall or plaster decorative moldings on ceilings or walls. The process of creating plasterwork, called plastering, has been used in building construction for centuries. A plasterer is someone who does a full 4 or 2 years apprenticeship to be fully qualified.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architectural metals</span>

Metals used for architectural purposes include lead, for water pipes, roofing, and windows; tin, formed into tinplate; zinc, copper and aluminium, in a range of applications including roofing and decoration; and iron, which has structural and other uses in the form of cast iron or wrought iron, or made into steel. Metal alloys used in building include bronze ; brass ; monel metal and nickel silver, mainly consisting of nickel and copper; and stainless steel, with important components of nickel and chromium.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Screw</span> Type of fastener characterized by a thread wrapped around a cylinder core

A screw is an externally helical threaded fastener capable of being tightened or released by a twisting force (torque) to the head. The most common uses of screws are to hold objects together and there are many forms for a variety of materials. Screws might be inserted into holes in assembled parts or a screw may form its own thread. The difference between a screw and a bolt is that the latter is designed to be tightened or released by torquing a nut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galvanic corrosion</span> Electrochemical process

Galvanic corrosion is an electrochemical process in which one metal corrodes preferentially when it is in electrical contact with another, in the presence of an electrolyte. A similar galvanic reaction is exploited in primary cells to generate a useful electrical voltage to power portable devices. This phenomenon is named after Italian physician Luigi Galvani (1737–1798).

References

  1. Nail II. def. 4.a. Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) © Oxford University Press 2009.
  2. "Wire Nails vs Concrete Nails - Uniwin Machines". 2022-04-30. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
  3. Sichel, Daniel E. (December 2021). "The Price of Nails since 1695: A Window into Economic Change". National Bureau of Economic Research. doi: 10.3386/w29617 . S2CID   245712757.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  4. E. G. Thomsen and H. H. Thomsen, 'Early Wire Drawing Through Dies', Journal of Manufacturing Science and Engineering, 96.4 (November 1974), 1216–21.
  5. Bible, Judges 4:21: "Then Jael Heber's wife took a nail of the tent, and took a hammer in her hand, and went softly unto him, and smote the nail into his temples, and fastened it into the ground: for he was fast asleep and weary. So he died."
  6. Bible, 1 Chronicles 22:3: "And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings; and brass in abundance without weight[.]
  7. Hanks, Patrick; Hodges, Flavia (1988). A dictionary of surnames . Oxford: Oxford university Press. p.  384. ISBN   0192115928. Naylor [...]: occupational name for a maker of nails [...].
  8. Wenkart, Michael (2014). 50 scientific discoveries that changed the world. Books on Demand. p. 221. ISBN   978-3735724991.
  9. Temin, Peter (1964). Iron and Steel in Nineteenth-Century America: An Economic Inquiry. M.I.T. Press. p. 42 web. ISBN   9780262200035.
  10. "The Blacksmith in Colonial Virginia".
  11. "Thomas Jefferson letter to Jean Nicolas Démeunier". Quotes Database. Archived from the original on 2017-05-10.
  12. Teknologföreningen, Svenska (1963). "Christopher Polhem, the Father of Swedish Technology".
  13. 1 2 G. Sjögren (2013). "The rise and decline of the Birmingham cut-nail trade, c. 1811–1914". Midland History. 38 (1): 36–57. doi:10.1179/0047729X13Z.00000000016. S2CID   153675934.
  14. Kirby, Richard Shelton. Engineering in history. 1956. Reprint. New York: Dover Publications, 1990. 325. ISBN   0486264122
  15. Notes on Building Construction. Part III. Materials. London, Oxford, and Cambridge: Rivingtons. 1879. p.  441.
  16. "A New English Nail Machine". Hardware. 7 Feb 1890. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  17. "About ENKOTEC". ENKOTEC. Retrieved 28 Jun 2023.
  18. 1 2 3 Visser, Thomas D. "Nails: Clues to a Building's History". University of Vermont. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  19. Ching, Francis D. K.; Mulville, Mark (10 February 2014). European Building Construction Illustrated. John Wiley & Sons. p. 59. ISBN   978-1-119-95317-3.
  20. Whitney, William Dwight; Smith, Benjamin E. (1901). Brad def. 1. Vol. 1. New York: Century Co. pp. 654–655.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  21. Davies, Nikolas; Jokiniemi, Erkki (2011). Brad def. 1. Oxford: Architectural Press. p. 56.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  22. Whitney, William Dwight; Smith, Benjamin E. (1901). Tack def. 1. Vol. 1. New York: Century Co.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  23. "Tools - Northwoods Canoe Co". wooden-canoes.com.
  24. "Faering Design, copper nails, roves, and fasteners". www.faeringdesigninc.com.
  25. "Heritage Gateway - Results". www.heritagegateway.org.uk.
  26. "Catalog" (PDF). shakerovalbox.com.
  27. Sprig. def. 1. Oxford University Press. 2009.{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  28. Bronze nails with magical signs and inscriptions; Roman, 3rd-4th century AD. British Museum info card for item "BM Cat Bronzes 3191, 3193, 3192, 3194": British Museum.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)

Further reading