a couple months ago i made a tutorial about the differences between old style cut nails and more modern wire nails i really recommend that video if you enjoy learning a little bit about the hidden history of the tools we use the video goes into several clever design features that you probably never noticed but as often happens on youtube a lot of people became fixated on just a single part of the video probably because it happened to be what was illustrated on the thumbnail that part involved how the design features of a cut nail reduces its likelihood to split a board and i illustrated this by pounding a wire nail and a cut nail near the end of a piece of pine the wire nail causes a split while the cut nail doesn't at this point a few people ran to the comment section to call me a fraud they suggested that i rigged this demonstration so the cut nail would perform better of course none of them explain why i would do that since i don't sell nails and i really couldn't care less what nails you use but they pointed to two things first they insisted that i had secretly bored a pilot hole beneath the cut nail off camera of course to trick you into believing it wouldn't split the wood then they claimed that it was an unfair comparison between the cut nail and the wire nail because the cut nail appears to be narrower and that's further proof that i was bought and paid for by the old timey cut nail lobby of course both of these accusations can only be made if someone doesn't pay attention to the rest of the video because what they point out as inconsistencies are actually design elements that were explained in that video so today i'm going to repeat the test with a fresh piece of wood and film it in real time and this time i'm going to focus on those two controversial points not because i think i need to answer a handful of critics among 2 million viewers of that video i'm making this video because i want to be sure that that little test didn't draw attention away from the fascinating technology that made that test possible so let's have another brief look first the test in real time [Music] now let's take a closer look at what actually happened here this is a piece of soft pine i chose pine because believe it or not it's less likely to split than hardwood if this were maple or oak even the cut nail would probably split it without a pilot hole because i was nailing it so near to the end of the board cut nails aren't miracle tools and this test wasn't really about how to avoid splitting your boards it's just a way of illustrating the differences between the two nail designs as hundreds of people pointed out in the original video's comments though you can reduce the chance of splitting with a regular nail by blunting the tip because a blunt tip is actually one of the clever design features of the cut nail when you drive a nail into wood the blunt tip severs the fibers while a sharp tip parts them when you force the fibers to part around the shaft of the nail you greatly increase the chance of a split but by blunting the end of your wire nail you help mimic that old cut nail technology the fact that generations of builders have been blunting their wire nails proves that cut nails had it right long ago as that blunt tip severs those fibers the wedge shape of the cut nail forces the ends of those fibers down into the hole this creates thousands of tiny barbs that help lock the nail in place and resist extraction that's another key feature of a cut nail technology that i explained in the original video and you can see those fibers give downwards as i drive in the nail in the original test and it was those fibers being forced downward that some mistook for a pre-board pilot hole but as you can see in this new test there's no pilot hole finally some pointed out that the wire nail in the original test was thicker than the cut nail and therefore more likely to split the board in the first place as i explained in the video cut nails are thicker in one direction but thinner on the side direction that's another clever feature of this technology a cut nail can be thinner in the cross grain direction yet equally robust as a larger wire nail even so to prove i'm not a cheater in the new test i used a cut nail that is actually larger than the wire nail yet only the wire nail split the wood again i'm not saying cut nails won't split boards if you're driving them this close to the end i'd still bore a pilot hole just in case especially in hardwood i'm just illustrating how the old technology severs the fibers rather than parting them and while that can reduce the chance of a split the more important result is a more secure hold which was explained in more detail in that video i'm not trying to sell you nails you can still buy cut nails from some specialty suppliers but i don't care what you use this is merely an example of how many of the tools we use every day have a fascinating history which you may not have known about check out that original video below and i'll see you next time i've been a proud tormek user for years i've never seen so many clever innovations from just one small company and the quality is simply uncompromising even if you're not in the market for a new sharpening system you should check them out and see what they have to offer at the link below this video there's a reason they're regarded as the best of the best
