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259682 Mark Pfeifer <markpfeifer@i...> 2016‑07‑26 heartwarming story / free to a Galoot home / clinching nails (and teeth)
Esteemed Galoots,

Heartwarming story:
In my first email to this august body, I confessed that prior to my birth as a
Galoot, I’d lost a vintage Stanley miter box that was given to me by a friend’s
Dad around 1986, when he brought a tailed apprentice into his shop. I’m happy to
say that I was reunited with my blue friend last week, and he’s not aged a day
since I last saw him. It turns out my parents had stored it in a trunk after I
moved out, and 20 years later we found it last week while sorting my now-retired
folks’ garage stuff. It still bears the 1978 manufacture date in blue ink on the
underside of the wooden deck.

Possibly free to a good home:
I have a ragged Acme Langdon 2 (note this is an Acme not the good one) that I
bought on That Auction Site for too much money. Of course I fixated on the one
picture of the manufacturer’s plate and thought “ooh how cool to have an old
miter box.” Upon getting it I discovered that it had one of the two heads
brazed. The rod that’s supposed to be between them is missing, easy enough to
fabricate but I’ve not taken that step because I don’t want to take a chance on
splitting that brazed head. It works well enough for general carpentry once you
get used to having to raise both heads separately. It cleaned up pretty well,
but it’s ugly, and with my blue friend now home for good I have no reason to
keep the Acme around to remind me of how much I overpaid. So if anyone is
passing through the Charlotte area I’m happy to load it into your car and wish
you well. I really don’t want to ship it but would consider doing so if the
recipient is willing to throw together a box of castoff random junk of
equivalent weight, and ship it to me. I know it’s silly but I will admit it, I
just like getting packages and poring over a surprise pile of junk.

Galotechnical Question:
This weekend I was doing some purely utilitarian work, making a base for my
Prodigal Mitrebox out of some ancient oak flooring. This involved two pieces of
T&G floor plank, with a couple of cleats perpendicular to the grain to keep the
T in the G. Since my 12 year old son was making a rare appearance I figured we’d
have some fun with it and I’d show him how to clench cut nails door-style to
hold the cleats to the flooring. Great lesson about grain right?

I used some apparently old raisin-head cut nails out of a pile that I’d bought.
Obviously I pre-drilled since I was using thin stock, and obviously the nails
went in just fine. I got out my handy 25lb steel plate and was ready to clench.
Just as I’m explaining to Jake how bending the nail over and across the grain
locks it in for life (“dead as a doornail”) just as we saw in the doors at Old
Town Salem . . . .  the damned thing snapped clean off right at the wood.

I dismissed that as part of the fun of working with old stuff . . . . at which
point the second nail did the same damned thing. The gauntlet thrown, I went at
the third one with aplomb, and sure enough, snap went the weasel right at the
point where the nail came out of the wood. As did the fourth.

Mind you I’ve clinched hundreds of nails of all shapes and sizes, beginning at
an early age before I knew it was a technique. This was not my first clinch
rodeo. And I use the very self same technique that both St Roy and Christopher
Schwartz demonstrate in books and videos. Jake was as good as son as you can
imagine as this happened. He was grinning but at least not very wickedly. I made
no excuses. I couldn’t. The moral impairment would have been shattering for both
me and my son.

Please, I implore you, kind, beneficent, generous Galoots, help me restore my
credibility with my son, lest he think his dad a poltroon. It can’t have been
the technique. It’s a nail. You bend it. It has to be the batch of nails.
Perhaps they were recovered from a fire that over-tempered them? Hit by
lightning? Cursed to Ba’al by a carpenter after he mashed his thumb with an
errant hammer blow?

As Scrooge said to the Marleys, “speak comfort to me friends, speak comfort to
me.”

Mark.

In NC, confidence shattered by some sixpenny cut nails
259683 Norm Wood <normw013@f...> 2016‑07‑26 Re: heartwarming story / free to a Galoot home / clinching nails (and teeth)
Hi Mark,

On 26 Jul, Mark Pfeifer wrote:
 
> It can???t have been the technique. It???s a nail. You bend it. It has
> to be the batch of nails. Perhaps they were recovered from a fire that
> over-tempered them? Hit by lightning? Cursed to Ba???al by a carpenter
> after he mashed his thumb with an errant hammer blow? 

Could these have been cut masonry nails, which are hardened? Here's an
example from Tremont:

http://store.tremontnail.com/cgi-bin/tremontnail/items?mv_arg=5

I expect they would break if clinched. 

Regards,

Norm
  Madison, WI
259692 Mark Pfeifer <markpfeifer@i...> 2016‑07‑27 Re: heartwarming story / free to a Galoot home / clinching nails (and teeth)
Hi Norm,

I have both types and don't deliberately mix them. Possible one could have snuck
in. But certainly not all 4.

  MPf
259693 John Ruth <johnrruth@h...> 2016‑07‑27 Re: heartwarming story / free to a Galoot home / clinching nails (and teeth)
GG's

Nails which snap during clinching can probably be softened by annealing.  

Heat to red hot, hold at that heat for a minute or so, then cool very slowly.
It's traditional to cool annealed items by burying them in wood ash.

I've done this on a very small scale with a gas kitchen range. Larger numbers of
nails can be  annealed in the outdoor barbecue.

John Ruth



Sent from my iPhone
259694 Mark Pfeifer <markpfeifer@i...> 2016‑07‑27 Re: heartwarming story / free to a Galoot home / clinching nails (and teeth)
Thanks John,

Was the kitchen range good and soft after you annealed it?  :). Ha, sorry. 

Great advice, I will fire the whole lot of these next time I get a bonfire
going. I have a fry basket around here somewhere that would be perfect for the
purpose.

Mark.
259695 John Ruth <johnrruth@h...> 2016‑07‑27 Re: heartwarming story / free to a Galoot home / clinching nails (and teeth)
Sensing that I've "been had" by Mark,
> Was the kitchen range good and soft after you annealed it?  :). Ha, sorry. 

I will have to share that with my daughter!  We annealed some used farrier's
nails using the range for a heat source.  She wanted to re-use these nails as
part of an artwork with used horse shoes.

> Great advice, I will fire the whole lot of these next time I get a bonfire
going. I have a fry basket around here somewhere that would be perfect.

I think you could get useful annealing by just tossing them into a bonfire.
Recover them from the ashes with a magnet after everything has cooled.

Clinching nails can be obtained from Breton's Village Trunk Shop.  I recently
showed my other daughter how to clinch nails in connection with replacing trunk
hardware . It proved very easy to clinch these soft nails.

John
259696 "Stager, Scott P." <StagerS@m...> 2016‑07‑27 Re: heartwarming story / free to a Galoot home / clinching nails (and teeth)
> On Jul 27, 2016, at 7:12 AM, Mark Pfeifer  wrote:
> 
> Great advice, I will fire the whole lot of these next time I get a bonfire
going. I have a fry basket around here somewhere that would be perfect for the
purpose.

Don’t melt the fry basket.  Would be a real pain to have to dig the nails out of
the ash :0)

The center of a good hardwood fire once it is coals and with good air supply can
work for a blacksmith forge - Been there, done it, and sometimes not on purpose.

The heat needed to anneal is a bit short of that needed for forging.  

—Scott
259697 Michael Blair <branson2@s...> 2016‑07‑27 Re: heartwarming story / free to a Galoot home / clinching nails (and teeth)
Only really thin nails bend on being hammered when placed against a
clinch plate.  Think the old shingle nails Tremont used to manufacture. 
Standard nails have to be driven through, with the head flush with the
surface, and the protruding ends turned and hammered down. 

Mike in Woodland
260041 Michael Suwczinsky <nicknaylo@g...> 2016‑09‑18 Re: heartwarming story / free to a Galoot home / clinching nails (and teeth)
I've been reworking a toolchest I built a while back with clinched nails,
and looking it over, recalling the process, I seem to recall driving the
galvanized nail thru till it just passed thru the back side, then bent the
tip over with the hammer, than put the backup block in place and drove it
home, most of them clinching up nicely, all of them ugly, but tough. 50+
lbs of smithing tools, and 50+ years of birthdays behind, I put wheels on
the toolchest. Woodworking tools feel light as a feather sometimes.

Michael

On Wed, Jul 27, 2016 at 9:18 AM, Michael Blair  wrote:

> Only really thin nails bend on being hammered when placed against a
> clinch plate.  Think the old shingle nails Tremont used to manufacture.
> Standard nails have to be driven through, with the head flush with the
> surface, and the protruding ends turned and hammered down.
>
> Mike in Woodland
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-- 
Michael Suwczinsky

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