Rare nails addendum

A reply to my ''scaffolding nails'' question, from an Australian (Tony B), on my WW mailing list:

I'm 57, my dad built a couple of houses, my grandfather built houses and
bridges for a living: lots of wooden scaffolding and concrete boxing /
shuttering, all made on site back in the 1930's to 1960's. I have seen pix of
duplex nails in US magazines, but in the accumulated debris of 3 generations in
the workshop under my house I have not seen one duplex nail, nor have I ever
seen one in Tasmania, full stop. Doesn't mean they were never here, just not
common.

My suggested reasoning for this is that nails hold very well in Aus hardwoods,
even if they aren't driven fully home. The friction on the shank works just
fine. My dad never drove nails flush in temporary work: he always left them
standing sufficiently proud to get a pinchbar claw under the head. Some of
that work was boxing close to 6' high, certainly higher than I was tall as a
late teenager. It held up just fine when the concrete was shot in from the
truck, so the nails were gripping pretty well.

The use of softwood as framing and construction timber is a fairly late
development in Aus, with the notable exception of Sydney where they started
framing in oregon pine many years ago. I can see the need to drive to the head
in softwood, and then the 2nd head would be very handy. In hardwood it isn't
necessary in my limited experience as an observer.


--END--