Nails or screws for garden gate

[Adam78]

What kind of fixing would you recommend for a ledge and brace tongue and groove gardens gate. Would you use screws or nails?

what type of screws or nails would you recommend?

For 20mm thick boards and 32mm thick batten what length and diameter fixing would be right. 3 x 50mm nails or 4 x 40mm screws?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

Oval nails, clenched over. Traditional approach which lasts

 

[Adam78]

Oval nails, clenched over. Traditional approach which last

what length and diameter would i need for the above boards? How much should protrude out the back for bending

What about ring shank nails as those would save me time clenching nails, though i can't seem to find any such nails which have an oval head, they all seem to be round heads and the round heads seem to be too visible unless I bashed the round heads and flattened them square.

 

[Diver Fred]

Oval nails, clenched over. Traditional approach which lasts

These Nails (50mm) or Nails (65mm)

'Clenched over' - means the nail is longer than the timber it has to go through so the point sticks out on the far side. What you do is when the nail point is just visible you hold a Lump hammer against the point and continue hitting the head until flush or better still punched into the timber. The lump hammer will cause the point to fold over and curl back into the batten.

 

[Deleted member 174758]

As @Diver Fred says. Clenched nails simply don't pull out and for a carpentry-built gate they are a durable and traditional approach (and there are examples of this technique in medieval castles across Europe). Oval nails need to be aligned to the grain but are less likely to split the wood than round nails, especially if blunted first

 

[Adam78]

As @Diver Fred says. Clenched nails simply don't pull out and for a carpentry-built gate they are a durable and traditional approach (and there are examples of this technique in medieval castles across Europe). Oval nails need to be aligned to the grain but are less likely to split the wood than round nails, especially if blunted first

Do I nail the boards in a straight line or would you offset them so they appear in a zig zag line?

 

[Deleted member 174758]

I'd do them in a straight line, but you could just as well do them in another way. It's your choice