Comments on: Improve the Clinching Power of Your Cut Nails

By: BillT

BillT — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 01:50:13 +0000

Never grind with the piece in the direction the stone is turning? Erm…. why not? Seems a little dogmatic.

By: BillT

BillT — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 01:47:55 +0000

I’m sure “Grind a Cut Nail to Improve Clinching” will shortly be a top title on Netflix.

By: rdesigns

rdesigns — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 17:02:33 +0000

For our wine cellar door, I built a plank-and-ledge door, and used 4″ door nails from the Tremont Nail Co.

The nails protruded thru by a full 1″, and I double-clinched them–that is, using visegrips, I bent the last 1/4″ of the tip to 90 degrees, then hammered the full length over so that last 1/4″ got pounded back into the surface, sort of like a staple.

BTW, I’m guessing that the expression “dead as a doornail” might have originated with clinched doornails because the clinching, along with the special return taper on a doornail makes it “dead”, or unmovable, once they’re done.

By: markholderman

markholderman — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 18:29:10 +0000

Chris, while it may be historically correct, having those nails bent over on that nicely profiled lid edge for all to see seems a shame. Why not drive the nail from the lid side and clinch on the batten, where it won’t be seen? I’d even be tempted to set the nail and fill the hole with putty. Mark

By: BobGroh

BobGroh — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:46:58 +0000

I also wonder why you can’t just heat the end of the nail with a small torch (to anneal it). Possibly because the a cut nail with only the tip area annealed would be too soft to drive into the wood (also the question of ‘grain following) and you really need a sharp tip to compensate for the softer tip area.

But I guess the real answer is that we should just try it.

By: RogerA01

RogerA01 — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 15:18:17 +0000

You might want to look at the nails that farriers use to shoe horses. After they’re driven through the shoe and the hoof, they’re clinched where they emerge on the side of the hoof. It’s possible, only because the nails are softer than the cut nails that were used for carpentry. I was able to get a handful from a local farrier. They’re perfect for attaching old forged iron hardware to a door. The heads may not be enough for the batten application you’re talking of.

By: woodchucker_j

woodchucker_j — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 14:13:03 +0000

I don’t understand why you would put a point on a cut nail .
The beauty of the cut nail is that it doesn’t split the wood because it has no point. So why would you put a point on it. Why not leave it flat, just anneal it with a small pencil torch?

By: chasesimon

chasesimon — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 02:49:23 +0000

You have to be kidding… It’s a hand crank, and he’s holding the nail in vice grips.

I actually think approaching the wheel from the “normal” direction is more dangerous – it would be kicked over, towards you, much more easily.

By: Niels

Niels — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 17:14:15 +0000

God bless the safety police and the guru of all things handmade- Mercy me!

By: wdgrvr

wdgrvr — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:11:06 +0000

chris all this recent talk of cut nails has prompted me to write. Last spring my brother sent me a box of woodworking treasures amoungst which were twelve boxes of Tremomt old fasioned cut nails sizes 3/4″ to 1,1/2″ courious I thought. Then in May I met you at Marc Adam’s, remember signing the “beast”?, and I saw your tool box I also bought the book ” The Anarchist’s Tool Chest” (another autograph). Looking around the morass of my workshop I feel fate is pushing me to build my own tool box using fifty plus years of aquired trappings. So in writig in front of my peers here’s my new years resolution, As God is my whitness I will be organized!