I stopped at a friends tonight to return a tool I had borrowed, conversation ensured of course, and eventually the price of nails came up. Everyone uses nail guns and construction screws, and the old framing hammer and 4 inch nails technique is disappearing. Except for me of course, I'll drive a few nails in the small building projects I do... So he hauled out the remains of a 50 lb box of 4" nails and asked I wanted them. Trouble is; where would someone use 4" galvanized finishing nails?!
Also, note the poor quality control on the galvanizing process on the top nail.
11 comments:
> where would someone use 4" galvanized finishing nails?!
To make an immense indoor/outdoor crib sturdy enough to hold the rambunctious toddlers Gargantua and Pantagruel.
That would also explain why 3/4 of the box has been used up :-)
Back in the day a two by four was actually two inches by four inches and a 4 inch nail was common. Now of course they are still called two by fours but they are just selling air since they are 1-1/2 x 3-1/2 thus a shorter nail is needed.
by the looks of them, they were hot galvanized indeed, but with an immense coating, that is. They should last for more than a few years in any outside application. By the way, don't heat them: those flakes look like dross, and this can be either iron, aluminium or lead.
4” HDG finish nails are still used today, but not very often. As a carpenter, there was only one place I’d use those very specific nails, and that was going through 2 layers of fascia boards in a stacked profile, and then into the 2x4 blocking behind the fascia. Each fascia board is 1-3/8” to 1-1/2” thick. HDG is required because customers get a little grumpy if their wooden fascia develops rust streaks.
Given your self-confessed obsession with buying and hoarding tools of all sorts, I can't imagine what you'd possibly need to borrow from a friend.
Happy New Year.
Thanks, Woodworker's Life! That's a pretty specific use case. I guess these days fascia board is usually covered with a painted sheet of aluminum. I'll use a few of them to hang things on, the good length and diameter coupled with the small head will make good hooks. :-)
Tony03, there's always something else you need, in this case it was just a 4 wheel dolly with better casters than I had. Boring, I can't even make a post about it!
Happy New Year, thanks for the notes, all!
There's always something. I had a car drum brake adjustment spanner sitting in my toolbox for years. Don't know where it came from, never used it, I don't work on cars. Gave it to my mate in the workshop next to mine. Next day I'm stripping the rusty spokes out of a Honda front wheel and I need a square section spanner to turn the nipples and ease them out of the rim. "Erm, Sam, do you think I could borrow...?" Never has the expression 'indian giver' been more painful to my ears.
I've heard it described as the "6 % rule". You will only ever find use for about 6% of what you have, but of course you can't predict what it will be. Therefore you can't get rid of anything!
Hmmm. I'm sure I use more than 6% of mine. Maybe I should buy more tools...
I'd be worried about the bottom of the box disintegrating when I picked it up and all of those nails ending on the ground :-)
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