Ever used bamboo skewers as "nails"?

[Pedro Reyes]

I made a quick stool for my daughter to climb on to her trampoline, all scrap pieces, one piece of PT 2x4 for the splayed legs. This is not cabinetmaking more like low level carpentry. Anyway I have seen a lot of Japanese craftsmen use what seems like bamboo sticks to "nail" wood, always at an angle, using a pre-drilled hole, usually using a gimlet type thing.

So for the legs to aprons I used screws, this is my daughter after all, but to "nail" the boards to the aprons (the surface she will step on) I angled a bunch of literally bamboo skewers, opted for that instead of nails or screws which will rust, just to try it really.

Anyone ever used that?

/p

[george wilson]

I see nothing wrong with bamboo nails. But,I wouldn't nail something critical,like a ladder together with them. I have used square pegs. 18th. C. high quality chairs had the back legs mortised and pinned on with square pegs,AND glue.

[Jim Koepke]

Japanese craftsmen use what seems like bamboo sticks to "nail" wood, always at an angle

A few thoughts on this:

Is glue also used for this?

Are they driven at opposing angles? This was something I was shown years ago to increase holding power. It is easier to pull apart a structure with nails going straight in. Nails at angles from different directions makes it a bit tougher to come apart.

jtk

[William Adams]

I used bamboo skewers (w/ Titebond III glue) to hold together two of the corners of the arrow-holding frame in my archery cases (the other corner was a typical dowel joint) --- couldn't use dowels for the other corners 'cause the ball catch was the same diameter as the dowels I was using and the same length as the thickness of the outer board.

Holding up fine.

[Pedro Reyes]

Jim,

Yes some glue is usually used, I did. The "nails" I drove them at different angles, in fact compound angles, not by design but because the aprons were already angled, then I would do one left and one right. Of course at the opposite end of that board, the apron was at an opposing angle and so were the "nails".

/p

[Lon Crosby]

All Neanders should know this. Early woodworkers frequently used the thorns from honey locust trees (or other thorned wood such as Osage orange, or mesquite) to lock mortise and tenon joints together. No need for nails or risk chipping a steel blade. A round tapered hole is easy to drill and the taper can pull pieces together as the peg is driven. Slice both sides off with a chisel for a nice effect.

[Bradley Gray]

I often use "trunnels" split from the same wood in a diamond or square shape driven in a drilled hole. The sharp corners really dig in.287018