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I didn't know nails are a "labor intensive" product! Looking for 12D nails @ hardware box store, found same company brand as I bought (made in USA) a couple of years ago .... yep ... now made in China. While waiting in line, guy in front of me was buying a galvinized pole (~ 2" OD X 8ft)..... yep .... made in China!
They arent, they are worse... They are a no money product, you buy them retail for nearly the cost of the steel and the packaging. In the real world a #16 nail should be 10 cents each or more. Grip-rite was a large producer of nails I see that most all the boxes are no made in China.
MY BUDDY WORK'S AT THE LAST NAIL FACTORY IN THE US!. IT IS LOCATED IN HORTONVILLE, WISCONSIN. All the eqipment and nail making machines are old and in need of constant upkeep. The owner has a hard time finding steel and usually the price is to high to make a profit, so it's a problem to find steel in a profitable price range, so a lot of times they end up with low grade steel with hard spots that damage their dies. And the dies on these machines are a time consuming pain to set-up, plus the damaged one's have to be resharpened or replaced!. ACE HARDWARE is their largest customer right now, and they want their order's filled in an unreasonable amount of time at a price that is so low, this company can barely make it. The company did buy some more nail making machines, but they came out of another nail making place that went out of business and are all old machines, basically they got 2 useable machines and a couple for spare parts!. It's just a matter of time, before they go out of business, and we are guessing within a couple of years at best!. So, then no more nails made in the US!. I just talked with my dad who retired from WISCONSIN MOTOR'S, later named Teledyne Wisconsin Motor's, located in South Milwaukee, WI, which is right next to West Allis, WI, where ALLIS CHALMER"S was located!. Wisconsin Motor's went under about 18 years ago but part's are still available. He told me he remember's getting truckloads of nail's from the plant in Hortonville, WI, about a 125 miles away, for the whole 34 years he worked at Wisconsin Motor's!. For several years my dad built shipping crates using their nails, sure is a small world at times!. With this posting it sure strikes me as interesting that I know a guy that work's at a nail factory and then find out it's the last one in the US, on it's way under, suck's!!...IN RESPONSE TO ONE OR TWO FOLLOWING POST: I have just talked with my buddy who work's at FOX VALLEY STEEL & WIRE IN HORTONVILLE, WISCONSIN!. My buddy has informed me that most nail gun nails are made in the US because most imports are of such low quality the cause jamming quite often!. HE ALSO TOLD ME THEIR ARE SOME COMPANIES, MAZE BEING THE LARGEST IN THE US THAT DO MAKE NAILS, BUT NOT "COMMON SINKER'S", THEY CANNOT COMPETE WITH THE IMPORTS. I ALSO JUST SPOKE WITH A REP FROM MAZE NAILS AND WAS TOLD THE SAME!. MAZE DOES MAKE ROOFING NAILS, AND OTHER SPECIALTY TYPE NAILS, BUT THE "COMMON NAIL" MARKET IS GONE, EXCEPT FOR FOX VALLY STEEL & WIRE IN HORTONVILLE WISCONSIN. TREMONT NAIL COMPANY, only makes reproduction specialty nails such as the nails used 100+ years ago, they do not make any modern type nails, I have just confirmed this with their company rep!. If anyone know's of an AMERICAN company making "Common Sinker's", I sure would like to be proven wrong!!...
There's still a few nail makers in the USA, the more successful have been bought in under the MAZE brand and serve specialty niches, but are apparently in demand.
SMT, Your post inspires me. I am going to STOP THINKING about it, and just start a webpage that lists US-made tools, nails, etc. Thanks!!
Stephanie, that's a good idea. That's something I've looked to find; a lathe or mill name, who makes it and where. One reason I intend to stick to the older iron stuff meself. It may be out there somewhere, I just ain't found it. An example: Cadillac lathe - a fine American name, made I think by Yam Industries or Yamazen(NOT a fine American name ). It might be a good machine, but I wouldn't pay scrap for one without advice from the guys here that are "in the know". In my dotage, I've learned to listen to the voices of experience. Oh, don't forget the user quality rating scale, parts availability, etc. Seems when companies are bought up they keep the old names in many cases, never mentioning that the product is now made in WhodAthunkitstan or WeBangU Province. Not to mention the "re engineering" of an already fine product. (Re engineered to it's knees )
My great grandfather, E.H. Titchener started a nail and brad company, E.H. Titchener and Co., around the 1900's in Binghampton NY. My grandfather took it over and ran it successfully for many years, including some busy WWII special production. He sold the company and retired but it survived and wisely moved into more specialized wire frame based products for computer and medical manufacturers. Sadly about a year and half ago the company hit a bad spell, probably a combination of the high cost of steel and tough competition from China, and the company went under, putting about 40 employees out of work. My dad used to use some E.H. Titchener boxes of nails and staples in his shop when I was a kid, but he didn't bother to hang on to any of them. If anybody ever runs across an old box of E.H. Titchener nails or stables, I would pay a handsome price for it. Paul Titchener
Dobber, Let me crawl before I walk! I'll get started, then maybe start a thread to ask for input if Master Don will allow.
Worked for a nail importer/wholesaler in the mid 90's. Most of their stock was made in mills overseas at that time. For those customers willing to pay the price, they did carry nails from one American mill, but I can't remember the brand. Maybe it was Claus? Or Nicholas? In the quality lineup, Canadian nails were next, followed by those from Yugoslavia, then Korea, then Poland. The Korean nails were good, but builders claimed they had too much residual oil on them and ruined their gloves. Ohly item from China was rebar tie wire, which arrived in containers. No pallets, just as many 70lb rolls as they could stack by hand load in the container.
FOR STEPHANIE, I am going to post this seperately instead of the edit that I did above. I believe this will get more attention!. THE COMPANY NAME IN HORTONVILLE, WISCONSIN IS FOX VALLEY STEEL & WIRE WHICH STILL MAKES "COMMON SINKER'S". A common sinker is basically a regular nail, problaby the most common type of nail used today!. If anyone would like further info on this company, they do not have a website, but I went to the search engine - ask.com - and you can enter and click on the following and it will get you info on the company including their phone number!. ---- "Fox Valley Steel & Wire Co."IN RESPONSE TO ONE OR TWO FOLLOWING POST: I have just talked with my buddy who work's at FOX VALLEY STEEL & WIRE IN HORTONVILLE, WISCONSIN!. My buddy has informed me that most nail gun nails are made in the US because most imports are of such low quality the cause jamming quite often!. HE ALSO TOLD ME THEIR ARE SOME COMPANIES, MAZE BEING THE LARGEST IN THE US THAT DO MAKE NAILS, BUT NOT "COMMON SINKER'S", THEY CANNOT COMPETE WITH THE IMPORTS. I ALSO JUST SPOKE WITH A REP FROM MAZE NAILS AND WAS TOLD THE SAME!. MAZE DOES MAKE ROOFING NAILS, AND OTHER SPECIALTY TYPE NAILS, BUT THE "COMMON NAIL" MARKET IS GONE, EXCEPT FOR FOX VALLY STEEL & WIRE IN HORTONVILLE WISCONSIN. TREMONT NAIL COMPANY, only makes reproduction specialty nails such as the nails used 100+ years ago, they do not make any modern type nails, I have just confirmed this with their company rep!. If anyone know's of an AMERICAN company making "Common Sinker's", I sure would like to be proven wrong!!...
There still is a cut nail mill in Wheeling, WV here is their website.
Wow! What a response! By the way ...I've bent a few nails by hammering, but this week something new happened. The head broke off! How's that for new house construction and hurricanes?
dznit, If your building a house in a hurricane area, you may want to use Gorrila Glue and Wood Screws made of Stainless Steel!!...
I'm not building a house, just some boxes. I was commenting on the housing industry.
It's hard to imagine much demand for common sinkers these days. With all the home construction going on here I rarely have seen anyone actually swinging a hammer - those nail guns have the hammers "out gunned" and screws are even better. In the building trades, time is money. Bernard
Excellant point BC210SH: But my buddy is working an average of 60 hours a week, ever since I met him about 5 years ago!. He is one of their top guys that set the machines up and keeps them going,he is the only guy their that can keep two of their "junk" machines going!. For the trades, yes it would be nail guns, but the small home repair and misc stuff most people do, it's the "old common sinker" for us. At this point I can't justify a nail gun, "yet", but I think I will look into them, Thanks for the hint!!...
Otto, I'm not a great framer and I don't do much of it so I can't justify a framing gun either but I do have a brad nailer for small work. For the framing I've done I use 8 x 2 1/2" screws and predrill using (2) screws each top and bottom. Works great, takes more time but I'm doing it for myself and the jobs have been small. Bernard
You guys in the US have got to let us in the "rest of the world" sell you something....wouldn't nails be OK??
Until about 8 years ago there was a nail manuf right here in little ol Beaufort, SC...which is particularily amazing considering we only have about 3 or 4 manufacturers of anything here. Called Beaufort Nail, they made the little nails used in attaching wood paneling...so they were painted various shades of brown or tan as well. I tried to buy their (40,000 sq ft) building back before I built mine, but ran into "Super Fund" issues where they dumped some nasty liquids out back apparently years earlier. Now that's been cleaned up and one of the local bigwig building contractors bought it and converted much of it to offices
Peter, You just keep sending those great apples up here, that should keep us both happy.
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