Читать книгу The Handyman's Book of Tools, Materials, and Processes Employed in Woodworking - Paul N. Hasluck - Страница 164

A NAIL is a pin or slender piece of metal used for driving through or into wood or other material to hold separate pieces together; or part of the nail is left projecting so that things may be hung on it. It may be of iron, steel, etc., and may be wrought, cast, or cut; or it may be of wire. In former practice, nails were said to be 6-lb., 8-lb., etc., according as 1,000 of the variety weighed 6 lb., 8 lb., etc.; hence such now meaningless terms as sixpenny, eightpenny, and tenpenny nails, in which “penny” is a corruption of “pound.” Nails consist of two parts, the head and the shank; and although they are mostly made of iron and steel, large numbers are also made of copper, zinc, etc. The varieties of nails number about 300, but the carpenter and joiner does not use many of these. Briefly the action of a nail is as follows. It is wedge-shaped so as to break through the fibres of the wood, and there it is held tightly by the elastic fibres, which endeavour to regain their original position, and so press tightly on the nail. The flattened out tops of nails known as the heads assist greatly in holding the nails in position, especially if there is any pulling strain at the opposite ends.