Anyone know allot about Square nails?

[Odokevin]

good morning everyone, (or day, evening, night. depending when you're reading this)

I love digging square nails. I don't know why, but i always get a little excited. a few days ago, I found the cleanest square nail I've ever seen coming from the ground. its complete, not broken or bent. still has crisp edges. It hasn't been weathered. (Sorry, couldn't get a clear picture)

looking at it, I saw it was tapered. I thought to myself, that would hold two boards together much better than a modern round nail. So I'm wondering, are round nails better, or just easier/more convenient to manufacture? any one know the reason for the demise of square nails? I tried looking it up, but was flooded with different styles of fake finger nails. I didn't get any useful information.

 

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[seekerGH]

nails these days are "common wire' nails meaning they are constructed from a wire spool. The wire is fed in, crimped and banged, all cold processed. This creates the tip and the head. You can see many nails where the crimp was not completely sucessful) The machine creates thousands a minute.

Many fasteners these days are rectanglular/square for specialty applications such as wood floors and horse shoeing.

For wood floors, fastenening on the edge, the rectangle shape is better, as it reduces splitting. (as long as one doesnt have it in the wrong direction!)

There are a few values that are important for a fastener. Embedment length, shear cross section, holddown, and withdrawl values.

Withdrawl is based on embedment depth, and cross section area, so it doesnt matter if the fastener is round or square/rectangular.
Shear is based on the area cross section. Round fasteners take the same shear force in all directions. The rectangular fasteners will have a different shear strength depending on direction.
Hold down value is based on the surface area under the head of the nail, neglecting the shaft size. That is why 16d nails are used, the head is a much larger ratio to the diameter of the shaft. (and why finish nails should not be used on a roof or anything structural, ie finish items oly)

Staples are becoming very popular for wood construction. You have the embedment for withdrawl, but the surface area held down by the 'u' shape (as opposed to the surface area under the head) make them very strong for construction.

 

[Odokevin]

Wow, I had no idea there was so much to nails and fasteners. Thanks for the great info!

 

[kcm]

Do some research into how 'nuts and bolts' are made. THAT is truly interesting!!

In machining, you know that a drill bit makes a round hole. If not precise, it can make an oblong hole. However, did you know it's possible to make a SQUARE hole in wood?


How about steel??

 

[luvsdux]

The presence of square nails can help pin point the age of when an area was used. From around 1890 to 1910 (give or take a bit) round wire nails and their ease of manufacture put the end to square nail production. I'm surprised at the mention of finger nails above, as when I did a search on the square nail history a few years ago I found more info than I expected.
luvsdux

 

[mick56]

Our local Ace Hardware Store still sells square nails in bulk.