urgent advice for nailing sweet chesnut shakes

[offgridchris]

im in need of some urgent advice for how to nail my 700 sweetchesnut shakes which i have recently split.

 

i was under the impression i needed to predrill the shake? so i drilled a 2.5mm hole 3" from the top. now is the hole to small for a 3.6mm nail? should the nail go through the middle of the tile thus making predrilling imposible ( advice from a large supplier).

 

im bit lost about whats right and any advice would be very welcome.

 

thanks

 

chris

[Beardie]

My only experience with chestnut shakes was at the Week in the Woods at the Sustainability Centre in 2008. Pre-drilling wasn't even an issue, we just cleft them, draw-knifed them and nailed them on. Green wood is soft, so it just deformed around the nail, rather than splitting.

[farmer rod]

I would make sure the hole is as large or larger than the nail, are you using copper nails?

[skyhuck]

One trick is to hit the nail point with your hammer, flattening the point, before you knock it in, so that it punches some timber out, rather than splitting it.

[woodmad]

just done some hand cleft oak ones on a summer house.

We pre drilled these and put them on with stainless screws.

What huck said is right about blunting the nail tho.

We fastened them in the middle not the top.

Its hard to expain but i didnt get any photos sorry

[offgridchris]

many thanks for the replies. ive redrilled the hole to be a bit bigger than the nail. blunting the nail is interesting . i think the need to predrill depends on how you split the chestnut. i think drilling isn't necessary if they are split radially. i split mine through, to give bastard shakes. all being well im go to nail a few on tomorrow. fingers crossed.