History question: use of screws

First metal ones = 14th century; wood, long before that...a screw is just a spiral inclined plane. Commonly = post ability to mass produce them which was a couple of years before 1800.

Sun, Sep 24, 2006, 7:38am (EDT+4) snipped-for-privacy@freyr.local (Peter=A0Lynch) doth queryeth: We were having a discussion about woodworking and the use of nails vs. screws. Do people know when woodscrews started to be used in mainstream furniture making?

Dunno. However, my grandfather - who was what a lot of people today would call a "master" carpenter - taught me that if you put something together, and expected to take it apart at some time in the future, you used screws. But, if you never expected to take it apart, you used nails.

JOAT You'll never get anywhere if you believe what you "hear". What do you "know"?.

- Granny Weatherwax

Yes, this is the sort of thing I was thinking about. I'm not so concerned with the date of the invention ... more with when the price of screws came down to the point where "normal" furniture makers were using them as first choice instead of nails. My grandfather was woodworking (as a hobby) in the 50's and early 60's though he didn't pass on tips to me as I was only about 4 when I knew him. So I guess we're talking about early to mid 20th-century

Pete

At one time in my checkered career, I did restoration work on reed organs. In the 1870s, flat head wood screws were the norm. Some older pieces, rough guess, from the 1860s, some sub-structures were nailed.

The screws used were usually odd numbered flat head steel, although there were occasional round head screws used, especially in small assemblies that would easily split with the beveled head of a flat head screw.

They also used small stamped washers that matched the contour of flat head screws in just about all applications where dismantling might be required in the future.

Screw sizes could range from #3 to #13.

Just my experience.

See:

with files! See ABPW/

I made these screws for use in an 18th century style flint lock rifle. I originally learned how to do this while working at Colonial Williamsburg, VA.

John

According to my research, screws (even ones made of metal) existed, but weren't very widely used, as far back as the Roman Empire but didn't start to become widespread until the late 15th or early 16th century when German clock makers began to make and use them. It wasn't until the late 18th century that screws were made by machines rather than exclusively by hand.

Lee