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There's a Japanese term I like -- kaizen, meaning continuous improvement -- and it's effect on tool quality has made woodworking a better hobby than it was 10 years ago. You've probably noticed the big gainers just as I have: cordless drill drivers powerful enough to sprain your wrist, anti-kickback saw blades that are less eager to hurl a spear of wood into your stomach, abrasives with Ironman stamina, carbide router bits that'll cut cleanly for hundreds of hours without complaining, and HVLP spray finishing equipment that won't turn your workshop into a fumatorium. But woodworking's improving in smaller ways, too, and these can sweeten your shop life as much as any of the big-ticket items. Take wood screws, for instance. Variety has increased along with strength, drivability and corrosion-resistance. Part of these gains come from new designs and part from improvements in distribution channels that bring more industrial-grade hardware within reach of home workshoppers. Just because wood screws are small-ticket items doesn't mean they're unimportant. In fact, as I've learned, it's easy to take what we now call regular wood screws for granted.
Several years ago a friend of mine, a hardware store owner, handed me a dusty box of hundreds of assorted, slot-head steel wood screws -- about 10 lbs. in all. He'd moved to a bulk display system, and didn't want the old packages cluttering up shelves anymore. Did I want them? Sure, who wouldn't? They were still sealed in yellowing factory cartons -- leftovers from the early days when his Dad established the store in the 1970s -- but otherwise brand new. Do you know that warm glow you feel when you get something for nothing, the pursuit of which, I suspect, keeps people buying lottery tickets? I carried that around for two blissful weeks, until I made the mistake of actually trying to use those relics. It didn't take long to see that I should've looked this particular gift horse in the mouth.
The fault is mine. Years of using what I thought were ho-hum Robertson wood screws had spoiled me, and the old slot-head screws I adopted showed me how. They were always spitting out the slot screwdriver tip, making even the simplest screwdriving task more like a lesson in simulating woodworm damage. And even when I managed to keep the screwdriver tip in place, the fat, unthreaded portion of the shank -- the part just below the screw head -- guaranteed to bind in the hole unless I bored a short, oversized pilot just for the little devil. Drive those old wood screws into softwood without a pilot hole? Maybe balsa wood, but nothing harder. You might as well try driving them into concrete. The fat, blunt screw tip wasn't going anywhere without a pilot hole, thank you very much. In the end I donated the wretched bunch of freebies to a church rummage sale, but not without a renewed appreciation for the obscure engineers toiling to upgrade woodscrew design. Screws are certainly better than they were and improving all the time.
The most recent entrants onto the kaizen, screw-quality escalator are what I call the do-everything-better screws. I've spotted three similar types so far and expect to see more:
Maxx
The Woodworkers Store 800-279-4441
Recex
Woodcraft 800-535-4482
and Spax
Lee Valley Tools 800-267-8767
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These screws all offer four main advantages over regular hardware store fare: a dual-drive head that looks slick and accepts both Phillips and
Robertson drivers, a slim-line thread design that minimizes friction and wood-splitting, low-friction coatings to ease installation, and a beefier head-to-shank union that means you won't torque screw heads off, even when the going gets tough. Are hi-octane screws worth a purchase prices several times higher than regular wood screws? Yes, sometimes. I use them if it'll save me drilling pilot holes, or when securing thin pieces of split-prone wood. They'll even auger their way into hardwood without pre-drilling. But until costs come down, I'll keep regular screws on-hand, too. Woodworkers are a frugal bunch, you know.
Another kind of screw I'm using more and more are generically called Tapcon, though that's just the brand name of the first type to hit the market. Tapcon screws thread directly into pre-drilled holes into all kinds of masonry. They're great for home renovations and in the workshop. There's no easier way to install shelving onto block or poured concrete basement walls.
Stainless steel is one of the most corrosion-resistant metals around, and although it's been used for years to make industrial-grade screws, bolts and nuts, stainless has only recently made it onto the home workshop scene. Mail-order tool suppliers and better hardware stores now stock stainless steel screws, cup washers, finishing nails, bolts and construction spikes. There's nothing to compete with stainless fasteners for outdoor furniture, trim work, docks and decks. They won't rust or stain no matter how wet things get, and that justifies their high cost in my book. In fact, lab testing shows that within the highly corrosive environment of pressure-treated lumber, stainless steel nails are the very best way to go, even in locations where rust stains would be hidden. Plain steel and electroplated hardware rot quickly in contact with the preservative chemicals. Hot-dipped galvanizing (now applied to some brands of wood screws), is the next best protection option for use in pressure-treated applications.
Remember those old slot-head wood screws I mentioned? Even if you haven't picked up a dusty box of old ones at a rummage sale lately (sorry if you were the one to buy them), you're still liable to run into the little darlings as you repair old hinges, door latches and dock hardware. These experienced screws are even more troublesome than when new because their meager little driving slot is always clogged with paint and rust. Drilling the heads off stubborn screws to remove hardware works well, if you don't mind leaving the shank behind, making it impossible to drive a new screw in the old spot. Another option is a drop of friction-enhancing goo on your screwdriver tip. I use a gritty paste product called Grab-It. This tilts the odds of screw retraction in my favor by helping to keep the screwdriver tip form camming out in the screw head. It often lets me twist out old screws - especially those pesky slot-head fossils -- that couldn't otherwise hold a screwdriver tip.
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