Nail (fastener)

A nail is a small metal tool.

It has a sharp point. It also has a flat head.

Most nails are made of steel. People use a hammer to hit them. This drives the nail into wood. The nail holds the wood pieces together. Some nails are even made of wood!

They can be used for building or for art. Nails are very helpful tools.

A nail is a small tool used to hold things together.

Most nails are made of metal. They usually have a sharp point. They also have a flat head on the other end.

People use a hammer or a nail gun to drive them into wood.

Nails have changed a lot over time. Long ago, smiths made them by hand. They would heat an iron pin. Then, they used a tool called a nail-header to flatten the end. This made the head.

Later, machines made "cut nails." These were made by cutting iron bars into shapes.

Today, most nails are wire nails. These are made from wire. Machines pull the wire through small holes to make it thin. Then, machines cut the wire and shape the head.

This way is very fast. It makes nails cheap and easy to find. There are many kinds of nails. Some are for roofs. Others are for horseshoes.

Some nails are even made of wood or copper!

A nail is a small but very important object. People use them to fasten things together in building and woodworking.

Most nails have a sharp point on one end. They also have a flat head on the other end.

Some nails do not have a head at all. There are many different types for special jobs. You might see spikes, tacks, or even brads. These small tools hold materials together using friction. They can also stop things from moving sideways.

Making nails has changed a lot over many years. In the past, a smith made them by hand.

First, the smith worked an iron pin into a point. Then, they put the pin into a nail-header. This is a plate of iron with a small hole. The smith hammered the wide end against the plate. This flattened the metal to create the nail head. Later, machines were made to do this work faster. These machines could cut nails from iron bars or sheets. This made the process much easier for workers.

History shows us how valuable nails used to be. Before the 1800s, nails were hand-wrought or forged. In the American colonies, nails were very hard to find. They were so expensive that people sometimes burned houses. They did this to find old nails in the ashes. Families even made their own nails at home at night. Thomas Jefferson even said he was a nail maker. By the late 1700s, the price of nails dropped a lot. This happened as new ways of making them appeared.

Today, most nails are called wire nails.

These are made from long coils of wire. Machines pull the wire through small holes called dies. This makes the wire the right size. Then, the machine cuts the wire into short rods. A blade cuts the tip of the nail. High pressure reshapes the other end into a head. In 1913, wire nails made up 90 percent of all nails. They are much cheaper than the old kinds. This allows us to use them for almost any job.

Nails connect to many things you see every day. You might see horseshoe nails on a horse's hoof.

You might see railroad spikes on a train track.

Some people even use wooden nails made of cedar. In the Pacific Northwest, the Salish people used these. They also made nails out of copper. Even in the Bible, there are stories about nails. They were used for building great temples long ago. It is amazing how one small object helps build our world.

A nail is a small but essential fastener used in woodworking and construction. These objects can hold materials together, serve as pegs for hanging items, or act as decorations.

Most nails feature a sharp point on one end and a flattened head on the other. However, some versions are headless. Nails work through two main physical principles. They use friction in the axial direction to stay in place. They also provide shear strength to resist lateral movement.

In some cases, a worker might bend the point over, a process called clinching, to prevent the nail from pulling out.

Historically, the production of nails has moved through three distinct periods. The first was the hand-wrought or forged era, which lasted from pre-history until the 19th century. The second was the era of the cut nail, occurring roughly from 1800 to 1914. The third is the wire nail era, which began around 1860 and continues today. During the hand-wrought period, a smith worked an iron pin into a conical shape. They would insert the broad end into a nail-header, which is an iron plate with a small hole. By hammering the pin against the plate, the metal flattened to form a head. This manual process was slow and required great skill.

The transition to mechanization began with the introduction of the slitting mill in 1590. This machine helped produce nail rods by cutting iron bars into even cross-sections. Between 1790 and 1820, inventors began automating the nail-making process itself. This led to the rise of the cut nail, also known as the square nail. These nails were produced by cutting iron bars into rods, resulting in a rectangular cross-section. Jacob Perkins patented this process in the United States in 1795. Joseph Dyer also established similar machinery in Birmingham, England.

Cut nails changed how buildings were constructed. Their availability helped increase balloon framing starting in the 1830s. This shift led to the decline of traditional timber framing that relied on wooden joints. However, cut nails eventually lost popularity to the wire nail. Wire nails are made from coils of wire drawn through dies to reach a specific diameter. A machine then cuts these into short rods. A blade cuts the tip, and high pressure forms the head.

By 1913, wire nails accounted for 90 percent of all manufactured nails.

Nails have often been treated as valuable commodities. In the American colonies, they were so expensive that people sometimes burned abandoned houses. They did this to recover used nails from the ashes. In Virginia, laws were even created to prevent people from burning houses just to collect metal. Families sometimes worked at home at night to make nails for barter. Even Thomas Jefferson noted that he was a nail maker. In medieval England, the term "penny" was used to describe the price of one hundred nails.

There is a massive variety of nail types designed for specific tasks. Common types include brads, which are small and thin, and tacks, which are short and sharp. Oval brads are specialized to prevent wood from splitting by cutting fibers rather than wedging them apart. Other examples include roofing nails, aluminum nails for architectural metals, and concrete nails. Some nails are even made of wood or copper, such as those used by the Salish people.

You can also find heavy-duty versions like railroad spikes or horseshoe nails.

Today, most nails are made of steel. Ordinary wood nails use mild steel, which has about 0.1% carbon. Nails for masonry are tempered and contain a higher carbon content to handle tougher materials. Modern rotary principle nail machines allow for a continuous process. These machines handle wire feeding, cutting, and head forming in one rotating movement. This technology has turned the nail from a precious, hand-crafted item into a cheap, mass-produced commodity used globally.