The architect should be well informed regarding this subject, and should be in a position to know the kind and quality of hardware that, when specified, will give the best results. He will find that a thorough knowledge of builders’ hardware will assist him materially in writing comprehensive specifications for this portion of the work. Consequently, the writing of the hardware specifications will receive attention in this Section, and the proper manner of estimating, or “taking off,” hardware will also be considered.
CUT AND WIRE NAILS
2. Cut Nails.—The primitive nail was made or forged by hand, and this mode of manufacture still exists in certain sections of Europe. These hand-made nails sold at exorbitant prices compared with the machine-made nails of today.
The manufacture of cut nails is less automatic and requires more manual labor than is necessary in the making of wire nails. The iron or steel is first rolled into sheets, the thickness of which is equal to the thickness of the nail; it is then cut into strips as wide as the nail is long. This strip of metal is fed into the nail machine and sheared off in tapering strips having the form of the nail, when it is seized by clamps that hold it just long enough for the heading hammer to strike the blow that forms the head.
The nail manufactured in this manner is known as the cut nail, and is much superior to the wire nail, which is of more recent production. Not only has the cut nail greater holding power, but it is more durable, especially when used in damp places.
3. Nearly all cut nails used at the present time are made from sheet steel, a small percentage only being manufactured of iron, for which the makers charge a slightly higher price. The steel nail is undoubtedly the best for use in hardwoods, but the iron nail will outlast it where dampness exists, as, for instance, in shingling, etc.
As shown in [Fig. 1], cut nails are made in many styles and sizes, and for various purposes. They are also known by the same trade term for the various styles. Cut nails are heavier than wire nails, and as they count fewer to the pound, are more expensive at equivalent prices. All nails are sold at base prices per keg of 100 pounds, the “extras” for smaller and special nails being added to the base price. For special work, certain types of nails can be obtained in copper and brass.
4. Size and Gauge of Nails.—Both cut and wire nails are designated by the trade term penny. The term penny as applied to nails is a relic of medieval England. This designation was due, it is said, to the fact that it defined the cost per hundred nails, so that tenpenny nails would mean that 100 of such nails cost ten pence. A more likely interpretation of the term is that it implied the weight and not the cost, and that the term penny is a corruption of the Old English word pun’ (for pound), so that tenpunny or tenpenny implied that 1,000 of such nails weighed 10 pounds. The smallest standard size of nail is known as twopenny or threepenny, while the largest is designated as sixtypenny. These sizes range in length from 1 to 6 inches. In designating the size of the nail in list prices, the symbol “d” (for penny) is used, so that a nail about 2 inches long is designated as 6d. The thickness, or diameter, is indicated by the gauge number, the gauge of cut nails being an indication of the thickness of plate from which they are cut, while the gauge of wire nails is the size of the wire from which the nails are formed. The different wire gauges and their decimal equivalents of an inch are given in [Table I]. The special wire gauge commonly used to indicate the size of the nail is the Birmingham. In [Table II] is given a list of the stock sizes of standard, common, cut nails. This table, besides giving the thickness of the nail and its length, gives the number of nails to the pound.
TABLE I
STANDARD WIRE GAUGES AND THEIR
DECIMAL EQUIVALENTS OF AN INCH