Vol. LXVII. No. 3047. 
NEW YORK, JUNE 20, 1908. 
WEEKLY, $1.00 PER YEAR. 
IRON BETTER THAN STEEL NAILS. 
Iron Lasts With the Shingles. 
People are beginning to learn the loss incurred by 
the use of steel nails as compared with iron nails. 
This holds good with both cut and wire nails. While 
a wire steel nail is much tougher and will stand more 
bending than a cut steel nail, it will rust out under 
exposed conditions equally quick. Most steel cut 
STEEL CUT NAILS, 10 YEARS IN THE ROOF. Fig. 231. 
nails will break by driving them into a piece of wood 
part way and bending them over against the wood, 
while an iron cut nail will not. Steel nails, particularly 
very large ones, or spikes, are liable to have the 
metal crystallized in driving them, to the extent of 
frequently having the heads fly off. Steel rusts much 
faster than iron. This has been proven by extensive 
tests. The writer has been watching carefully in 
various positions the difference between the lasting 
qualities in steel nails and iron nails. I built an addi¬ 
tion to my Summer home on the Nescopec Mountain 
eight years ago last Summer, and used four-penny 
steel cut nails in shingling, and last Summer found 
that many of the nails were rusted in two, and to 
the extent that the shingles were loose and could be 
pulled out from under the shingles over them without 
any resistance from the nails. In some cases no sign 
of a nail would show, nothing appeared but the nail 
holes in the shingles. Many of the nails were rusted 
in two in the center and rusted to a sharp needle point. 
The shingles, which were Red cedar, were apparently 
as good as when laid. The roof would have been 
good for at least 25 years had the nails been made 
of iron, but as it was, it had to be reshinglcd at the 
expiration of eight years’ service. It was a loss of 
at least 15 years service of the roof on account of 
using steel nails. The roof on the original part of 
the building had been on 22 years, and was sawed 
hemlock shingles put on with four-penny iron cut 
nails. The shingles were considerably decayed, but 
the iron cut nails were in perfect condition, and would 
have lasted for many years had the shingles not given 
out, so here is a difference on the same building of 
the roof lasting 22 years held by iron nails and 
giving out in eight years when put on with steel nails. 
In taking off the roof that was put on with steel 
nails one wire steel nail was found, and it was rusted 
about as badly as the cut steel nail. 
1 he writer has a barn in Pittston, Pa., that was 
shingled just 10 years ago, and four-penny steel nails 
were used. A few days since the shingles in large 
patches on the roof were blown off, and most of the. 
nails were found to be rusted in two, and in some 
cases nothing but the heads of the nails were to be 
found. This necessitated reshingling the barn. Many 
of the shingles were still good enough so that they 
were used in reshingling the upper part of the roof. 
I his is another case of a loss by using steel nails, 
samples of which are shown at Fig. 231. 
I have a railroad box car built for special service 
" hich has been in use for 11 years. The roof of the car 
is made of decking, and was put on with nine-penny 
steel wire nails. In places the decking had decayed 
so it had to be repaired, and in taking it off it was 
found that some of the nails were rusted entirely in 
two and to a sharp point a little way below the head, 
and others were rusted nearly in two. This is a case 
of heavy steel wire nails rusting out and being abso¬ 
lutely out of service in 11 years. These are only a 
few of the cases that have come under my notice. 
I have also found in using nails for planking railroad 
sidings between the rails and on the outside of the 
rails that by the time the plank had begun to decay, 
a period not to exceed six years, the heavy steel nails 
or spikes had rusted and become so brittle that the 
least touch of a hammer would break them off, while 
the iron nails were still in good condition. 
Forty-eight years ago I built a barn in Tioga 
County, New York, and shingled it with shaved hem¬ 
lock shingles made on the ground from selected tim¬ 
ber, and used four-penny iron cut nails in putting 
the shingles on. The roof is a quarter pitch, and 
pitches to the east and west. The shingles on the 
east side had so far given out about two years ago 
that the present owner thought best to, and did cover 
the roof on the east side over the shingles with gal¬ 
vanized iron. The west side of the roof is still doing 
STEEL WIRE NAILS, FIVE YEARS IN FENCE. Fig. 232. 
service, and the nails to all appearances are in good 
condition, having been in use 48 years. This seems 
a long time for hemlock shingles to last. 
Some builders claim that galvanized wire nails will 
last well and are suitable to use for shingling. This 
I think is a mistake. Good iron will take galvanizing 
so as to make a good lasting material, but galvanized 
steel, whether sheet steel or nails, will not take gal¬ 
vanizing anything like as well as iron, and galvanized 
steel in exposed conditions will last but a very few 
years, while galvanized iron will last for many years 
under very trying conditions. In many instances gal¬ 
vanized sheet steel has given out in two years. There 
are a good many cut nails made with a steel center 
by placing a quantity of steel in the center of the 
metal to be rolled, and in that way they get a steel 
center and an iron surface on two sides of the nail, 
the cut edges of the nail exposing two parts of iron 
and one part of steel. This makes a better nail than 
an all-steel nail, but not nearly as good as an all-iron 
nail, and unfit for use in shingling and in other ex¬ 
posed positions. There are many places where steel 
nails can be used with perfect safety and undoubtedly 
to good advantage, such as for box-makers’ use and 
perhaps many other uses, but I do not think that they 
should ever be used in building operations, as where 
cheap buildings are put and depend entirely on the 
nails to hold them together there is danger in years 
after of the nails depreciating to the extent of actually 
making the building unsafe. I should not be surprised 
if the question of using steel nails for certain pur¬ 
poses would be found to be so dangerous that laws 
would yet be passed regulating the quality or kind of 
nails to be used under certain conditions. 
We took down a barn in Tioga County, New York, 
which was shingled with shaved pine shingles put on 
with cut iron nails. The roof had been on between 
50 and 60 years. The shingles were practically worn 
out, and would crumble under your feet when walking 
on them, and in many places were nearly cut off where 
the water dripped off from the butt of one shingle on 
the shingle under it, but the nails were in good con¬ 
dition. I have some nails of wrought iron made by 
hand by a blacksmith which were used in my grand¬ 
father’s building 112 years ago, which are in perfect 
condition. There is no doubt that the loss to the 
property owners in the United States on account of 
using steel nails since their first introduction has 
amounted to millions of dollars. 
The manufacturers of nails tells me that there are 
as a rule more split nails in a keg of iron nails than 
in a keg of steel nails. While this difference would 
not amount to but a few pennies worth in 100 pounds 
of nails, it influences contractors to use steel wherever 
they are allowed to do so instead of using iron nails. I 
have a number of buildings on which steel nails were 
used in shingling. The shingles have not been on long. 
They will soon have to be reshingleu on account of 
steel nails rusting out. I have a small build¬ 
ing that was shingled eight years ago, using steel cut 
nails. I had to reshingle it, as the nails were rusted 
out. I reshingled it with the same shingles and iron 
cut nails. The same trouble or difference will be 
STEEL CUT NAILS, 12 YEARS IN FENCE. Fig. 233. 
found between galvanized sheet steel and galvanized 
sheet iron also. Galvanized iron is worth many times 
as much as steel. There is much to be said on the 
subject of using iron nails instead of steel, and all 
owners should insist on having iron nails for all pur¬ 
poses. I have written this hoping that it might save 
some people from heavy loss by using iron nails where 
they would otherwise have used steel nails. 
Pennsylvania. j. e. patterson. 
