All who have had occasion to drive a nail through a thin or narrow strip of wood, especially near the end of the piece, have encountered the difficulty of preventing the wood from splitting, which will invariably occur unless a hole is bored, or the piece sufficiently clamped.

Fig. 97 shows a nail prepared to overcome this difficulty. As can be readily seen, the point of nail is clipped off with a pair of cutting pliers, leaving a straight edge the full width of the nail. Then, by applying the nail across the grain of the wood, as shown, a safe drive is assured.

Fig. 97 - A chisel point prevents wood from splitting.