Ledge and batten doors, using cut nails only
pgrbff
| Posted in General Discussion on
I am building some European oak ledge and batten doors. I have bought handmade nails which I would like to bend over to fix the Ledges to the battens but cannot find any information on the technique used for bending the nails once nailed through the door.
All previous attempts have resulted in the nail head being pushed back out resulting in an overall loose fit.
Can anyone help?
Also, should I pre drill before using the nails? I would prefer not to split the ledges.
Replies
It is pretty easy to nail into soft woods like pine, but I would always plan to pre-drill before nailing in Oak. You might get away with it once or twice, but eventually Oak will split. Use a drill that is slightly smaller than the nail.
To crimp the nails successfully, you might try starting with a piece of flat steel stock against the corner of the nail tip and the wood. Successive strikes on the flat stock while raising the angle should direct the force into crimping the nail where it exits the wood rather than pushing the head out. If you clip off the end of the nail, simply drive it back out and start again.
Good luck. Let us all know how you fare.
Not all nails are clinchable (or clenchable). If the steel is too hard, you'll get a crappy result, or it could just snap. Old timely nailmakers made special nails for clenching. Tremont nail does. The last I checked, Rivierre did not.
There are three primary ways to clench. Drive the nail in while having a heavy, flat piece of metal on the exit side. The nail will clench with each hammer strike. This gives the best result, in my opinion. Consistent looks. It's how boat and canoe builders do it.
Or you can drive the nail through, then bend the tip over from the reverse. The results look yucky to me. And you still need to support the head side, so you don't drive the nail head partway out.
You can also drive the nail through, and from the reverse, bend the tip with pliers. Then drive the hook down into the reverse. This isn't always as easy as it sounds, and is most time consuming.
As mentioned above, I would absolutely drill first in oak. Also, orient the nail correctly if the nail has a wedge shape. The wide part of the wedge should be oriented along the grain, or you can still split the wood.
If you are not sure of the nails you can heat the pointy ends with a torch to soften them up.
The nails do bend, they aren’t very brittle. I might try and find out more about the boatbuilding method; although building doors this way was still being used where I live until relatively recently. All the nails however were bent over in the same direction. Thank you for your replies.
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