NAILS (fom the Saxon nagl) in building, &c. small metal line-spikes, serving to bind or fasten the parts together, &e.
The several kinds of nails are very numerous ; as back nails, wade with flat shanks to hold fast, and not ()pen the wood. Clamp-nails, proper to fltsten the clamps in build ings, &e. CUT-milts. or brads, whose heads being flatted, clasp and stick into the wood, rendering the work smooth, so as to admit a plane over it ; the most common in building are distinguished by the names twentg-penny, two-shilling, &e. Clench-nails, used by boat, barge, &c. builders, with bores or nuts, and often without : for line work, they are made with clasp heads, or with the head heat flat on two sides. Clout-nails, ordinarily used for nailing on of clouts to axle-trees, are flat-headed, and iron-work is usually fixed with them. Deek-nails are for fastening of decks in ships, doubling of' shipping, and floors laid with planks. Day-nails, or jobent-nails, proper for thstening of hinges to doors, Sze. Flat-points are of two kinds. viz. bug, much used in shipping, and proper where there is occasion to draw and hold titst, yet no necessity of clenching ; and short, which are fortified with points, to drive into oak, or other hard %void. Lead-nails used to nail lead, leather, and
canvass, to hard wood, arc the same as dipped in lead or solder. Port-nods, commonly used for nailing hinges to the ports of ships. Ribbing- nails, used to fasten the rib bing, to keep the ribs of ships in their pla•c iu building. Rase-nails are drawn square in the shank, and commonly in a round tool. Rother-tmils, chiefly used to fasten rother irons to ships. Ls:cappe•-wells, much used to Ihsten leather and canvass to wood. Sliurp-foi/s, much used, especially in the West Indies, with sharp points and flat shanks. S3eathing-nudg, used to fasten sheathing-1)(41•1s to ships : the rule for their length is, to have them full three times as long as the board is thick. Square-nails, of the same shape as chiefly used for hard (sod. „Brads, long and slender. without heads, used for thin deal Work, to pre vent splitting. 10 these may be added tacks ; the smallest serving to fasten paper to wood ; middling, for wool-cards and oars ; and lurqer, for upholsterers and pumps. They are distinguished by the names of white-tacks, two-penny, three-penny, and four-penny, lurks.