I miss the days of forging my own nails from scratch

When I first started shoeing back in '92, I was apprenticing with this old timer in Kentucky who made me forge every single nail from bar stock. Took forever but man, you learned to appreciate a good nail. Now it's all machine made stuff from China and I swear the QC has gone downhill. Last month I had a batch where half the heads snapped off driving them in. Anybody else notice this or am I just getting old and cranky?

2 comments

2 Comments

lisar141mo ago

Happens with everything now. Bought a bag of drywall screws last week and three of them twisted in half before they even bit into the stud. It's like everything's made to barely last past the warranty.

jade321mo ago

Three of them twisted in half? That's wild, I would have thrown the whole bag across the garage! I usually just get super frustrated when the heads snap off, but having them actually twist apart before even biting in sounds next-level bad. Makes you wonder what kind of metal they're even using these days.