Tools for Working Wood has it nailed

I've always been pretty lucky in buying hardware.  Quite often in my travels I find boxes of old cut nails, usually larger sizes, 8D and 10D, but occasionally in the smaller sizes more useful for furniture work. I also salvage nails from old barns when pulling them apart.  So imagine my surprise when, the other day, I reached into my nail cabinet for a handful of 4Ds and came up empty. What the...???

So I panicked. "How am I going to finish this chest of drawers," I asked myself.  "Surely, I can't use wire nails, that would destroy the look of the piece!".  Fortunately, I remembered Joel Moskowitz and the brilliant folks over at Tools For Working Wood.

I ordered a pound of 4D Fine Finish Nails, a 1/2 pound 2D and 1/2 pound 4D Decorative Wrought Head Cut Nails, and 1/8 pound of 2D Headless Cut Brads.  They arrived quicker than I expected and are of excellent quality. And they come in neat paper bags.

Cut nails. Image from TFWW website



Wrought Head nails. Image from TFWW website.



Headless brads, for moldings. Image for TFWW website

The Decorative Wrought Head nails are for some carved boxes, a la Peter Follansbee, that I'm making for Tillers International.  More on that later.

And the other nails are for finishing my chest over drawers, and for a very special project that I'm writing up for Popular Woodworking.  Much, much more on that later as well.

As for my nail cabinet? Of course, I completely forgot that I had just bought a box of vintage (read as "rusty") 4D finish nails at an antique mall in Madison, WI.  I found them two days after my TFWW order arrived. So, I should be set for a while, at least until I forget and order more... Joel, you have my credit card number and address. Don't let me run out!

Zach