Nails

60 acre hillside · Jan 29, 2014

When I grew up we only had oak and other rough lumber, Our most usual nails were 8d and 20d. Our hammers were not the best. Now I use dimensioned softwood from the lumberyard and have noticed that I bend a lot more nails. My theory is that due to possible litigations from flying fragments the nails are made of softer steel. O now have high quality hammers.

I have found some old nails and they seem to be stiffer. I use sinker nails almost exclusively and for more critical use I chose screw.

JayinNY · Jan 29, 2014

I think it's the cheap china made nails, I bought nails from an old timer after he passed away, they must have been pretty old, Otta 20, 1 would bend, with grip rite china nails I'd bent 3 or more Otta 10. Just the way things are today!

T.R.K. · Jan 29, 2014

Soft metal makes the nail forming dies last a lot longer. You may still be able to find better nails like those from the olden days but you will pay extra for them too.

Daddy always kept 8 penny and 16 penny nails around here.

Randy Shoe · Jan 29, 2014

I'd just bet that it's probably hard to find an American made nail as it is finding an American bolt. Most hardware stores don't carry an American made grade#2 or #5 bolt.

RusselAZ · Jan 29, 2014

Tri-focals will do that to your nails. Oh, and use some sandpaper on the face of the hammer head.

MSD · Jan 29, 2014

China made. Hard to find USA made ones anymore but if you look around there are still some made here.

D beatty · Jan 29, 2014

Years ago dad put up several barn out of rough sawn oak and use a masonry nails and 20 oz. spiking hammers.These nails would not bend but once in a while you would break one. We wore safety glasses when useing these nails.

John_PA · Jan 29, 2014

You still pound nails in with a hammer?

I didn't realize people still did that.

old · Jan 29, 2014

Don't you kn0w the nails are made in China so they are almost right. LOL. If you want some real nails I have a box of the old square nails from many many years ago

MN Scott · Jan 29, 2014

I was cleaning up around my new machine shed this afternoon. I picked up a few empty nail boxes. Got to looking at them and noticed that the nails were made in the USA. The roofing screws were china made tho.

Bob · Jan 30, 2014

"You still pound nails in with a hammer?"

That was my thought, EXACTLY! An air nailer usually gets the job done!

Prawn Farmer · Jan 30, 2014

Used to sell a brand of nails in my lumberyards and pole barn business made up in Peru, Illinois called Maze. I've been out of the loop for 14 years now but at the time they weren't cheap but definitely quality all the way. The galvanizing was hot dipped zinc rather than electro-plated or tumbled plated. I doubt that box stores carry them but some independents might. Sold 50 lb boxes of 8's or 16 sinkers made by Sterling for $12.50 per box as a loss leader.

howdy1960 · Jan 30, 2014

I have some square nails that when I tried straighening them they broke. Maybe they were dried out from the 170 year old wood they were holding together LOL

MarkB_MI · Jan 30, 2014

It is a fact of life that imported nails are inferior to those made in the US. Unfortunately it is getting almost impossible to buy anything but Chinese junk. I buy Maze nails when I can; Lowe's carries them in a few sizes.

Some brands of nails are better than others. If I have bad luck with a brand, I switch stores. I see where Home Depot and Lowes do change brands from time to time, so they do pay some attention to sales.

JF in MI · Jan 30, 2014

You boys got that right. I don't think I even know how to work a hammer anymore.

Bret4207 · Jan 30, 2014

I've noticed the heads breaking off nails here. Start pounding and the head breaks in half. Junk! We used to be able to get galvinized, twisted shank nails that were great for holding. Can't find them or the old style ring shank pole barn nails anymore, or the nails with glue either.

Nail guns? Really? You hi tech guys got me. I just got a a hammer stapler a few years back and thought I was really kicking the cat in the butt.

Mike M · Jan 30, 2014

Like Others said Maze nails sure are or were ? made better !
At least many years back when we built our pole building.
I hope they still offer the same quality. It was like night and day hard to believe something so simple can be so different !

Dachshund · Jan 30, 2014

I dunno - I had to go out and LOOK! I bought several boxes of nails from an Amish Lumber Yard nearby. ALL of them are made in USA. I use 16d, 10d, 20d, and some Ringshank. I have access to good rough sawn Oak, Hickory, Ash, and Sycamore, so I use very little pine. Some of the Oak needs to be pre-drilled - depending on what I'm doing with it, but for the most part, the nails hold up well.

Pops1532 · Jan 30, 2014

This is a timely subject for me. My work compressor needs some attention so I'll be hand nailing today.
Yes, there is a difference in quality between brands and especially between older USA made and the Chinese nails that are so prevalent today. We did a lot of military work back in the 80's. They didn't spec US made fasteners but they said imported fasteners usually didn't meet the military specs. And they actually came around and checked the nail boxes.

My first thought when I read the OP's post was the old nails were probably commons and the new nails were sinkers. Common nails have a larger diameter shank than the same length sinkers.

If you see a box store change brands it's not because they are listening to customers wanting a better or US made product. It's because they've found another brand that they can buy more cheaply.

Many of the collated nails for use in nail guns are now imported as well. A couple of years ago Menards briefly carried Pneu-Fast nails for nail guns. They were US made and noticeably less expensive than the name brands. I tried them and they were every bit as good as the name brands so I stocked up on them.

mkirsch · Jan 30, 2014

You can still buy a good hammer for $25.

An air nailer is going to run you.... $300?

Then you have to get one that drives 16's, another for 8's, a brad nailer... You'll have $1000 invested, and you won't even have an air compressor yet.

You'll still need a hammer to drive the 20's and pole nails anyway...

BTW, Tractor Supply has ring shank pole nails. I bought a box of 6" ones here last fall.

farmerjohn · Jan 30, 2014

My grandfather taught me to put motor oil in a small container and dip the tip of the nail in it before driving into oak. Built a shed out of oak and bent maybe 3 nails on the whole thing.

farmerjohn · Jan 30, 2014

They broke because of the way cut nails are made--cut from sheets of iron, and will not tolerate bending. If you needed to bend nails like clinching in a door you used wrought nails that could be bent.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 30, 2014

Oil works good. Also a little spit works good too, even just dip them in a little water. In my younger smarter years I would just stick the nail in my mouth to wet it a little. I was working on an oak floor for a hog house. Quit for the day and the next morning started out again, only I forgot that the temperature had dropped below freezing, and yes the nail stuck to my tongue. Lesson learned.

howdy1960 · Jan 30, 2014

Never thought of that. Thanks for the info

John_PA · Jan 30, 2014

Stanley $250 air nailer only lasted me about 6 years. Harbor freight framing nailer I have had for 7 years. It cost $55 and I have a 20% off coupon. roofing nailer was $60 with 25% off. Pancake compressor and brad nailer/stapler combo was $119, and I think they gave me another 20% off on that as well.

As for the big 20d, I use lag bolts and an impact driver now. That's what the Amish are using, and they say it really helps with pole building shifting.

The real cost savings is in the saved labor. I put a roof on half my house in 1 day with a roof nailer and one guy laying shingles out in front of me. I would have paid $2000 for labor. That pays for it all right there, because I have the time to spare 1 day. If I had to take 3 or 4 days, then I would have had to hire someone.

old · Jan 30, 2014

These have never been used as in new but old

Pops1532 · Jan 30, 2014

(quoted from post at 14:05:43 01/30/14) You can still buy a good hammer for $25.

An air nailer is going to run you.... $300?

Then you have to get one that drives 16's, another for 8's, a brad nailer... You'll have $1000 invested, and you won't even have an air compressor yet.

You'll still need a hammer to drive the 20's and pole nails anyway...

BTW, Tractor Supply has ring shank pole nails. I bought a box of 6" ones here last fall.

First off most framing nailers will shoot anything from 6 to 12 or 16d. I've got five of them.
I just bought a barely used Senco 325+ framing nailer, two Makita cordless drills, a Makita cordless reciprocating saw, a Makita cordless circular saw. a Milwaukee cordless drill, a B&D cordless drill, several chargers and batteries at an auction all for a whopping $10.
You can buy used nailers on ebay for short money.

They do make nailers that will shoot 20d nails. I've used one. It belonged to someone else and I don't recall the brand name but it shot 20d spiral shank nails into oak.

You might be able to buy a good hammer for $25 but it's difficult to find good nails. Especially at the box stores.

Rich_WI · Jan 30, 2014

(quoted from post at 11:16:44 01/30/14)
The real cost savings is in the saved labor. I put a roof on half my house in 1 day with a roof nailer and one guy laying shingles out in front of me. I would have paid $2000 for labor. That pays for it all right there, because I have the time to spare 1 day. If I had to take 3 or 4 days, then I would have had to hire someone.

Bingo, its all about saving time (and time is money). I have always wondered how people can do the math on nail guns and compressors and not able to figure out how cheap they can be compaired to labor.

Buy the fanciest compressor you want and even spring for the extended warranty. Then buy the most expensive nail gun you can find and send it off to be gold plated. At the end of the job, the nail gun and compressor will be PAID FOR with just the labor savings. After that, every job done from here on out is money and time saved.

I dont care if hammers are free, they are still way too expensive for me to be messing with.

Pops1532 · Jan 31, 2014

I dont care if hammers are free, they are still way too expensive for me to be messing with.

I remember seeing a sign advertising nail guns in 1977. The sign showed a picture of a hammer and said at $10.00 an hour this is driving you out of business.

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