Category: Personal Favorites

Good nails are hard to find.

While I would love to use blacksmith-nails all day and every day, my customers aren’t willing to pay $1.35 per nail. So I use Tremont cut nails, which are about one-fifth the cost of a homemade nail – a 6d “wrought” nail with a head is about 22 cents. That’s still expensive, but cheaper than handmade.

But the Tremont wrought head nails are covered in black oxide, a fact that I’ve blogged about before and have offered dangerous solutions to fix (hydrogen chloride). (Edit: Not all the Tremonts are covered in black oxide; but the one with the “wrought head” are.) Why can’t I have a plain steel nail with a nice head?

Turns out that I can.

Dictum in Germany has been carrying a variety of excellent blued-steel nails that are forged (using dies) and have square-tapered shanks. I received my first shipment from Dictum today (it took only three days to get the order) and I am more than impressed.

These nails, which I recently encountered in England, are awesome. They are plain blued steel. They look way better than the Tremonts (sorry Tremont, but it is true), and they hold like crazy. Oh, and they are less expensive.

A 6d (50mm) nail from Dictum is about 6 cents a nail (plus shipping). Order a bunch to save on shipping. You will not regret it.

Most woodworkers will need only two or three sizes of nails to do most work. The 50mm nail is used for nailing together carcases – chests and the like. Dictum sells these for €6.30 for 100 nails (plus shipping).

For nailing 1/2”-thick backs and bottoms in place, you should get the 30mm or 40mm nails (30mm for hardwoods; 40mm for softwoods). Dictum sells the 40mm nails for €6.40 for 100. The 30mm nails are €4.80 per 100.

These are great nails at a great price, even if you include the shipping. And buying them rewards a nail-making company that has been doing it the hard way for a long time.

OK, back to editing stuff.

— Christopher Schwarz

Earlier this year I got to use an early prototype of the Bridge City Tools Chopstick Master during a trip to Portland, Ore. (Read about that here.) After planing out a pair of Japanese-style sticks, Bridge City founder John Economaki asked if I’d be interested in testing the second prototype.

Hmmm. Food. Woodworking. Could I add alcohol to this equation?

And thus began the idea for the chopstick-making party we held last night. We gathered eight adults and two teen-agers who were mostly non-woodworkers to make chopsticks. Their reward for success? Getting to use their chopsticks instead of their hands to eat Chinese take-out.

Earlier that day I prepared the 7mm x 7mm blanks for the chopsticks using a bunch of exotics and domestics. I was thrilled to get to use some Ancient Kauri (40,000 years old) that has been sitting in the racks for years. Plus bog oak, teak and mahogany left over from “Campaign Furniture,” heart pine from an old factory, Douglas fir, Port Orford cedar and white maple.

The guests picked their woods and did all the operations themselves as I observed and stopped them from making the occasional mistake. This was the flaw in my food+woodworking+alcohol plan. I had to stay dead sober and be the “responsible” one who kept his “underwear in place.”

Biggest lesson: I had no idea there were so many ways to hold a block plane (pinkies up, really?).

After planing the chopsticks to shape, they sawed the tiny pyramid shape on the ends using an integral sliding table that works like a mini-Jointmaker Pro. Then they sanded the sharp corners and finished their chopsticks with mineral oil.

All in all, everyone was thrilled to get to make something useful with their own hands and in just few minutes of work. All the chopsticks worked great – until we brought out the cheesecake. Then we had to switch to forks.

I definitely will buy a Chopstick Master when it comes out. It is simply too much fun, and I love anything that bridges the gap between my love of food and woodworking. (This is why I’ve been obsessed with treenware for so long and follow the Hungry Squirrel on Instagram.)

Which begs the question: When will John Economaki invent Fork Master or Teaspoon Master?

— Christopher Schwarz

P.S. If you are interested in Chopstick Master you can sign up to be notified when it is available at chopstickmaster.com.

Both Kaare Klint, the father of Danish Modern furniture, and Thomas Jefferson, the father of awesomeness, had a similar idea about storing books.

Put them in individual boxes that suit their sizes. Stack the boxes on top of one another.

This was how Jefferson’s entire library (which later became the Library of Congress) was arranged. In fact, the books were transported from Monticello to Washington, D.C., by merely nailing a board on front of each unit and putting it in a carriage.

In Klint’s 1924 design for I.C.T. Levinsen, he stacked up boxes and then clad them in another carcase with tapered sides. The lower units were 19-1/2” tall and they became smaller with each unit above – 17”-7/32”, 15”-1/4”, 13-1/2” and 12” at the top.

As someone who built a recreation of the Monticello bookcases, I can tell you this: It makes for a fantastic bookcase that consumes a lot of material. I can only imagine adding the tapered sides would complicate construction and add material.

Still, they are cool.

— Christopher Schwarz

Images of Klint’s work are from Gorm Harkaer’s excellent monograph on Kaare Klint.

Andy, who is studying woodworking in Germany, alerted me to the fact that Dictum also sells the Roman-style nail sold by Objects of Use and Rivierre Nail Factory. These nails are sold under the brand “Sonstige” but appear identical to the others I’ve encountered.

I’ll know shortly if that’s the case – I’ve ordered 1,200 from Dictum. They are very reasonably priced.

If you go to the Dictum site you will see they sell two kinds of Roman nails in five sizes. Which do you need? That’s why you pay me my exorbitant salary.

All of the steel nails that Dictum sells are headed nails, meaning they are designed for holding on cabinet backs or bottoms. Or they are used to hold casework together when nailed from the outside. These nails are meant to be visible. Don’t use them to attach mouldings.

When you nail things together you have a top board and a bottom board (or outside board and inside board, if you please). The top board is the more important one for calculating the size of nail you need. Here is some quick translation work.

Dictum Door Nails
The door nails are sold in two lengths: 30mm and 40mm. The 30mm nails are equivalent to our 3d nails and are used for fastening 3/8” thick (10mm) stock. The 40mm nails are equivalent to our 4d nails and are used to fasten 1/2”-thick (13mm) stock.

Dictum Plank Nails
Dictum sells the plank nails in three lengths: 50mm, 60mm and 70mm.

The 50mm nails are similar to our 6d nails are are used to fasten 3/4” (19mm) stock. The 60mm nails are like 7d nails and are used to fasten 7/8” (22mm) stock. The 70mm nails are like 9d nails and fasten 1-1/8” stock (29mm).

Note that the sizes of wood above are approximate. Use your intelligence. If you are nailing pine, try going up one size of nail. If you are nailing oak, try one size down for starters.

Roman-style nails such as these are best preceded by a tapered pilot hole. Use one of the tapered drill bits you use for wood screws and you’ll be in great shape.

By the way, Dictum is a great company – I have taught there many times. So order with confidence. But I’d never noticed that they carried these nails. Get some. Get a lot. These are a good find.

— Christopher Schwarz