Hard or soft?

Pizmo · Post by **Pizmo** » Tue 03 Jan, 2006 7:35 pm

Hello...

Can anyone please tell me which are the best V nails to buy? I'm sure I read somewhere on this forum (or another) that its best to get the ones for soft wood and use them in any wood as it holds the joins better? I may be dreaming this tho ......

The chappie in the place I buy my stuff in says that you should use the V nails for hard wood on any wood as it goes into soft wood too? So just to buy hard wood ones....

I am now confused .......... and I have probably confused anyone reading this........

Happy New Year to everyone....

Pizmo

Post by **John** » Tue 03 Jan, 2006 8:10 pm

This is one that I also would like to see nailed down. (So to speak)

I can't imagine that different grades of metal are used for hard and soft wood wedges, so I assume it is the shape that is different, perhaps the sharpness of the cutting edge.

Anyway, I find that it is such a palaver changing chutes that changing for different sizes of wedge is enough to do, without also having to worry about changing to suit the hardness of the wood, so universally use only the bois dur wedges.

markw · Post by **markw** » Tue 03 Jan, 2006 8:14 pm

with the exception of a few mouldings - the majority are hardwood, so use the hardwood wedges. I had to join some small oak frames just before Christmas - some of the oak was exceptionally hard and had the grain running across the length - the wedges kept coming out of the side of the joint - or just wouldnt go in to the end. applying more pressure and slowing down the movement only caused the wedges to split - now thats "hard wood" - we got there in the end, but some of the oaks, ashes and exotics can be frustratingly hard to join. I have my eye on a little router that's designed to cut a small shaped hole in each corner - ready for a shaped plastic joiner - but this oak would have been too small for this method.

Pizmo · Post by **Pizmo** » Tue 03 Jan, 2006 8:46 pm

Thanks both of you ...... that was a quick reply!

Pizmo

mick11 · Post by **mick11** » Wed 04 Jan, 2006 12:43 am

John wrote:I can't imagine that different grades of metal are used for hard and soft wood wedges, so I assume it is the shape that is different, perhaps the sharpness of the cutting edge.

John,
If you look at them under a magnifying glass, you will see the hardwood wedges are sharpened on both edges and the softwood ones are only sharpened on the inner edge.

I personally cant see that it makes any difference, after all a chisel is only sharpened on one edge, and sharp is sharp no matter how it is achieved.
JMHO

Post by **John** » Wed 04 Jan, 2006 8:26 am

Thanks Mick, at last I understand.

If the wedge is sharpened on the inside only, it will tend to pull the joint tighter as it moves through the wood. However if the wood is hard it will resist this action and instead force the wedge towards the outside of the moulding as it is driven home, and possibly even cause the wedge to split.

markw · Post by **markw** » Wed 04 Jan, 2006 9:29 am

the defininition is literal and not generic - The term hard wood as a generic term covers a wide range of sometimes very soft wood. - still use the hard wood wedges for eveything.

kev@frames · Post by **kev@frames** » Tue 10 Jan, 2006 9:33 pm

we use an alfamacchine and framer PF underpinners. We've got hard wood wedges, but I dont think anyone has opened a box for about three years. Standards seem to do the job in everything, even stacking 3-up in ash with the italian machine.
come to think of it, everything seems to get done with 10mm standard wedges.
imho the hard-wood wedges dont seem to stack as well, but that may be down to the machine or operator rather than the design of the wedges