2. To test the evenness of the end of a board which you have been trimming with a block-plane: Apply the square to the side and edge of the board; if the work is true, the blade will be level with the end of the board; if uneven, the defect is quickly seen.
3. It is well to test your square itself; thus: Lay your square snug against a straight edge with the handle to the left; draw a line where the edge of the blade comes: then reverse the square, having the handle to the right; draw a similar line: if the square is true the lines will coincide; if they diverge ever so little the square is imperfect, and you should buy another.
4. In planing the edge of a board, put the handle of the square against the face of the board; the blade will then go across the edge, and you can soon see if it is even; i. e., at right angles with the face of the board.
Hammering a nail seems a very simple thing, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do that, as you’ll find for yourself after you’ve split two or three bits of work; but you might as well learn the right way at first.
If you look at a nail of any size, from a brad to a twenty-penny spike, you will find that the sides are parallel and straight, and two are wedge-shape or sloping; also one of the straight sides is finished smooth, the other is rough. A nail is virtually a wedge. Now the principle of the wedge is to split things when the wedge goes with the grain, as when you split a board with an axe or hatchet; for an axe is a wedge, as you will see if you think about it.
If, then, your nail is put in wedge-fashion with the grain, ten to one the second good tap with your hammer splits the board; if, however, you turn the nail the other way, so the wedge side is across the grain, and the straight side with the grain, the nail is held firm by the grain pressing against the wedge, and the board doesn’t split. This is the reason that fine work is done with brads better than with tacks, for tacks are wedge-shaped on all sides, and in driving them if the wood is thin it is very apt to split.
Always start a nail in the direction you mean to have it go, and don’t depend on straightening it afterwards. If, however, it gets a wrong slant, don’t bend it back with your fingers, nor hit it a knock sideway with your hammer which will likely enough break the nail short off; but with every regular stroke of your hammer give an inclination in the right way, and it will get there.
Don’t hold on to the nail too long; in soft wood the second hammer tap ought to find the nail firm enough to stay. Don’t make the first or the second hammer stroke a long hard one; if you do, likely as not you’ll mash your fingers. The first tap should be light and short; get the swing gradually, a few inches first, adding a few inches more with each stroke; by the time you want full force to drive the nail home, you’ll find you can’t hit anywhere but on the head of the nail. This is something that practise alone can make you perfect in. If you watch a good building-carpenter, it seems as if he threw the nail into place with one hand and hit it on the way.
Don’t think you must look at each nail in order to place it right. Your eyes must be in your finger tips; the smooth side goes with the grain.