Who needs a nail gun

[Michael]

When you've got skills

[Bill]

A nail gun would just get in the way... ; )

[hubops]

.. is it punky wood - just for show ? John T.

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[Martin Eastburn]

Pine. Green pine is that way and then the resin starts to harden and the board gets hard.

Living in a Piney Woods of East Texas one sees trucks of pine boards driving to build a house. This is lumber and Power poles / telephone pole production in this town. GP is making boards and my friends over in the pole place is making poles.

Mart>

[Swingman]

Have had the privilege of working with a few old time union carpenters down through the years, and that kind of skill with a framing hammer is becoming a lost art ... although that guy didn't look nearly as skilful as some I've seen.

The skill to use a hammer was so important in the pre-nailgun framing days that carpenter's unions actually dictated the size of the framing carpenter's hammers; and framers would soak framing nails in buckets of gasoline and paraffin so they would drive easier with one lick, and, if you believe the CW at time, actually hold better.

Another discipline that relies heavily on skill and finesse with a hammer is the farrier trade. Grew up on a horse farm and spent a good deal of my life as a young man shoeing horses, including make a living at it when I first got out of the service.

Out of necessity when nailing in close proximity to living tissue full of nerves, you quickly development the ability to drive a horseshoe nail accurately using a combination of force, velocity, sound, and the feel of the resistance to each blow, in order to finesse the nail's exit in the proper location in the hoof.

Miss the nail, the horse will react in some manner, putting you in danger of getting ripped and torn with a partially driven nail point; and badly driven nail will exit in a location that won't guarantee that the shoe will stay on for the usual 8 weeks between shoeing ... or worse, "quick" the horse, with the result that he could be put out of commission for days.

Not something a show, or race horse owner wants to deal with.

Makes you appreciate the amount of skill that can be exercised with a hammer. ;)

[-MIKE-]

Years back, I got "asked to leave" a few carnival games where the object was to drive a 16p nail in one or however many blows to win a prize. At a young age I had not only the necessary framing experience to know how to drive nails, but also the strength and technique of the "whipping" motion of an efficient drumming stroke. The two, combined, translated into a prize-winning acumen at the nail-driving caravel booth that wasn't much appreciated by the guys running those booths. It also impressed the girls... the real prize a young man sought. :-)

[krw]

My (ex) SIL's brother shoed horses at Saratoga. He made really good money by driving nails in the right place.

[Puckdropper]

Swingman wrote in news:kqGdnX [e-mail]:

One of my buddies tells about spiking on the railroad. He quickly got to the point where he could spike with 3 other guys using a spike maul that wasn't too much bigger than the spike he was driving.

One of the things he mentions is using the natural reaction force (my words) of the spiking to bring the maul back up. That way, he wasn't constantly lifting the maul but using the reaction to do some of the work for him.

Puckdropper

[John Grossbohlin]

The long handled 20+ oz. hammer helps... along with soft fresh wood that hasn't had a chance to harden with age. I remember when SPF framing materials became common around here in lieu of Douglas Fir. The SBF was so soft I left big dents in it with my 20 oz. so I lightened up on my hammer blows. That was not a bad thing in regards to my joints.

[Swingman]

That's what I was talking about.

It is amazing how all the intricacies of your senses come into play when doing something enough to have gained some skill in it ... like what appears to be the simple act of swinging a hammer.

[EXT]

I have always said "The mark of a skilled professional is the ability to make the job look so easy that any beginner will think they can do it -- until they try".

[-MIKE-]

You speak the truth. When I guilt my first home (wow, has it been?) 20 years ago, I built a Sharn (too big for a shed, too small for a barn) behind it. First, I wish I would've built it before the house. It would've been nice to have somewhere to store stuff and get in from the rain. But I digress.

I got all the untreated framing lumber for the Sharn from a local sawyer. It was all fresh cut white pine. That was the first time I ever worked with green lumber and man, was it a pleasure. Every board was straight as an arrow-- flat and true. Heavy as oak from still being green, but a welcome trade-off.

I experienced what you did with driving nails. They drove in like they were going into the ground, and nary a split board to be had from toe-nailing or end nailing.

After completion and given time for the wood to dry out and shrink, the nails were near impossible to pull out.

[nailshooter41]

It's all part of a system of building, one happily used for the last century. Ripped, torn, split wood is of little structural use when framing as you cannot rely on the adjoining surfaces being intact, in turn generating poor joinery.

You can get wood that is too green; employed as a consultant for Allied Signal/Honeywell, I was required to test out all materials (including wood) used on the roof structure to ensure that maximum moisture didn't get higher than 15%.

Green wood for framing is the right choice for the reasons you spelled out, including the observation that the wood contracts around the nail as it dries, making the mechanical fastening even stronger.

Robert

[-MIKE-]

The only downside was that the joists hadn't developed a discernible crown yet. I had to read the grain carefully to predict which direction they would eventually bow. I also had to be sure to use a waterproof adhesive on the gussets when building my gambrel trusses for its roof.

All in all, I would love to build with fresh cut lumber again. Oh, and all the lumber was nominal-- the 2x10's were 2x10. And cheap.

[-MIKE-]

Correction: now that I think about it, they were nominal in depth. Their widths were about 1/4" over. So 1-3/4x10.