nail in wood ????? and how long to cook it

[Rian de Bruyn]

Has anyone ever made this nail in wood trick ??????????


What is the best wood to use and how long must it stay in the boiling water ??


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEATei2wewY






252109

[John Coloccia]

The description of the video say he used pine and boiled for 10 minutes, so I would probably try pine in boiling water for about 10 minutes :D

[Joe Kieve]

Neat trick but I liked the song better than the trick. Never heard it before, cute.

[Michael Koga]

I made 2. IIRC 10 minutes was a little too short for the pine I used, internally was dry and started cracking when compressed. I believe I boiled for about 20 minutes. In the comments someone mentioned squeezing with the clamp, releasing immediately to drill the hole then let it expand without reboiling. I tried this on the first one but ended up with a nail going in diagonally instead of horizontally because the wood started expanding as soon as the clamp was released. Maybe if I used 2 clamps, and a long drill bit it would have worked.

The second one I clamped in a vise for a couple of days to dry out and was able to drill the hole to get the nail horizontally. Then boiled it for 30 minutes and let it expand. It did not fully return to original size but I just trimmed all the 'fingers' thru the table saw and sanded all the sides smooth.

My first attempt I tried a piece of redwood, but the water started to turn into a reddish color so I aborted since I was using my wifes nice SS pots....... didn't want to see hammer in brain trick!! :-)

[Rian de Bruyn]

thx Michael I boiled it for 10 min but it was too short is there a "cut" that work beter ?

[Scott Haddix]

This reminds me of an old article from FineWoodworking from probably 15-20 years ago with making a wooden arrow go thru a wooden apple. You did the same treatment to compress the airrowhead after carving it, push it thru the hole you predrilled in the wooden apple, and them pressed it back into shape. Some sanding and light shaping work and the vast majority of people can't tell how you did it. Pick different woods for the apple and arrow.

[Ryan Baker]

Basswood (linden or lime) is the best thing for that trick. Boil it for a few minutes, 10 should be plenty. Squeeze it in a vise slowly -- you need to let the water drip out as you squeeze it, but don't take so long that the wood cools and drys out. Leave it in the vise for a few days. Then it will hold its compressed shape. Drill the hole and insert the nail. Now just drop it back in some hot water and it will come right back up within a minute or two, and look exactly like it did when you started. You can watch it expand when you put it back into the water. Just be sure to keep the nail head out of the way.

[Michael Koga]

If you are talking the depth of cut, my cut was about 70% deep. Then after expanding and drying, I trimmed it down so the cut was about 50% overall for looks.

I used a piece of blue tape to hold the nail in place while expanding. I didn't use a galvanized nail so I was worried about rust so I immediately dried the nail then gave a quick squirt of wd40. No rust on mine.

I've seen a picture of wooden arrow thru a glass soda bottle.

[Ryan Baker]

The wooden arrow through the bottle is done the same way. You compress down the arrow head and put it through the hole. When the head is expanded again, the arrow is locked in place. The hard part there is getting the hole in the bottle without breaking the glass.