On Jul 26, 12:23am, Millios@a... wrote:

> He has tapered (1/64 over measurement to 1/64 under), straight
> (which are actually 1 1/64" in diameter), and pegs chamfered on
> both ends.
>
> He also has "drawbore pegs", which are like the 1" tapered pegs,
> but first 3 inches is tapered sharply to 5/8" diameter.
>
> Pegs are made of air-dried oak or ash.
>
> In one of his books, Tedd Benson recommends using a peg that
> is two inches longer than the timber at hand.

At home I have a book, who's title & author escape me
right now, about the construction of clipper ships.  The
author collected essentially all info published in books
and newspaper reports from the time (1850's), and produced
an amazingly detailed explanation of all aspects of wooden
ship construction.

Anyway, he devotes 4 or 5 pages to treenails, with some
interesting notes:

Treenails were usually locust, with white oak as a second
choice.

Treenails were either round or octagonal (8-square), with
apparently no consensus on whether the octagonal shape
help better.

They were split from stock square, and either shaved
(hatchet or drawknife) or turned to final shape.

Treenails often had the last 2 inches left square, to
aid in driving (bigger target, I guess); this would be
cut off later.

Treenails would be stored in a boiler room to ensure
being as sry as possible when driven.

They usually were not tapered, or only for a very
short distance to ease starting.

Sometimes long treenails would be shaped with a step
(i.e. from 7/8 to 1-1/4 dia) to align with the
faying surfaces of the two pieces being joined.
This made driving the long treenails easier.

John