Richard Gillespie
07-31-2004, 5:53 PM
I’ve hated slotted screws ever since I started woodworking. They were an inferior, primitive design so far as I was concerned. Every time I tried to work with them the screwdriver would cam out and I’d usually tear up the adjacent wood.
I inherited my father’s tools and collection of hardware. Included in that were pounds of slotted screws. Those screws are now in the local landfill.
Last week, I bought on Ebay, a 1986 edition of Fine Woodworking’s “on Hand Tools”. The last reprint date on it is August 1996. In it is an article by Michael Podmaniczky on Sharpening Screwdrivers. As is intimated in the article, the problem with slotted screws is the taper put on the modern, slotted screwdriver. That taper on the blade causes the cam out problem with the screw. The proper way to use slotted screws is with a round shaft screwdriver, bevel ground to exactly fit into the screw in both length and width. That means you should have a set of screwdrivers ground to match all the screws you use. Light bulbs started going off in my head as I read that article.
I’ve seen some examples of round shaft, slotted screw drivers beveled ground as the article describes and thought that they were rather curious looking. Now I know they are the correct style and everything else is wrong. To think, some future archeologist will dig up that large clump of slotted screws and wonder why they were thrown out.
I look forward to correctly grinding a or a set of screw drivers to see how much of an improvement I get.
I inherited my father’s tools and collection of hardware. Included in that were pounds of slotted screws. Those screws are now in the local landfill.
Last week, I bought on Ebay, a 1986 edition of Fine Woodworking’s “on Hand Tools”. The last reprint date on it is August 1996. In it is an article by Michael Podmaniczky on Sharpening Screwdrivers. As is intimated in the article, the problem with slotted screws is the taper put on the modern, slotted screwdriver. That taper on the blade causes the cam out problem with the screw. The proper way to use slotted screws is with a round shaft screwdriver, bevel ground to exactly fit into the screw in both length and width. That means you should have a set of screwdrivers ground to match all the screws you use. Light bulbs started going off in my head as I read that article.
I’ve seen some examples of round shaft, slotted screw drivers beveled ground as the article describes and thought that they were rather curious looking. Now I know they are the correct style and everything else is wrong. To think, some future archeologist will dig up that large clump of slotted screws and wonder why they were thrown out.
I look forward to correctly grinding a or a set of screw drivers to see how much of an improvement I get.