Core77

MacGyver Skills: Learn to Clinch Nails

Richard Maguire shows you how nails used to be used like staples

By Rain Noe - December 7, 2016

in Hand Tools

Pick your calamity of choice: Zombie apocalypse, EMP attack or you went back too far in a time machine. You find yourself in a situation where you need to build something sturdy out of wood, but there are no cordless drills nor screws, just a rusty hammer and a box of nails. What to do?

Here Richard Maguire, a/k/a The English Woodworker, shows you the old-school technique known as nail-clinching. This is a fast, simple way to get a sturdy connection:

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We cued that video up to the relevant part, for those of you with short attention spans (or sneaking some Core77 time in at work). For those of you with the luxury of time, here's the rest of the video, where he makes the actual tool chest:

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Austin Liu

8 years ago

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I prefer "toe nailing" to clinching. If you hammer in nails at opposing angles, they prevent the two items from being pulled apart. I noticed that he used this technique in a few spots in his video. This is preferable to me simply because less of the nail is exposed. If you set the nails and use a bit of putty, the nail can remain entirely hidden.

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- Mathias Meisfjordskar
  
  Austin Liu
  
  8 years ago
  
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  This is a skill best used for utilitarian reasons, not aesthetic ones. I learned this from my father when we made several wooden gates for fences and separators for sheep pens. The boards were scrap - around 14mm thick. We didn't have screws of that size and buying them meant money where as I was free labor.
  
  The end result is sturdy. Probably more so than screws.
  
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