Corrugated Fasteners

The late 1800s were a time of significant industrial growth in America. Trainloads of manufactured goods streamed out of the factories and were transported to every city and rural town in the country. Pretty much everything was was packaged for shipping in wood barrels or wood crates. Heavy-duty cardboard boxes would not come into widespread usage until the 1920s.

So it was that wood crates by the millions were being made, and that was the incentive for F. W. Starr to invent the corrugated fastener in 1894.

Corrugated fasteners allowed unskilled workers to efficiently construct wood-board shipping crates that would hold up to transport stress. Corrugated fasteners are remarkably secure (nails can loosen much more easily). Better yet,  the fasteners can make connections that nails can’t. They can, for example, secure two wood pieces that are butted together, as This Video Shows.

It doesn’t get much easier than that. The fasteners can also be used to hold splitting pieces of wood together. 

It can be argued that corrugated fasteners are not attractive but, as the saying goes, “pretty is as pretty does." 

Wood crates are, of course, still being made in the 21st century for specific shipping purposes. But the fasteners are now typically driven into place using a pneumatic nail gun. 

Trad-men of yesteryear naturally appropriated corrugated fasteners for various carpentry and repair projects beyond crate making. I frequently find them near the workbench in small home workshops at estate sales. I keep a supply on hand and they occasionally prove to be very useful.

All of which now brings me to the seven boxes of Stanley corrugated fasteners pictured at the top of this essay. I bought them at a flea market for a dollar each.

I bought them because they are from the Stanley Tool Company “sweetheart” era (1920-1935). It so happens that Stanley tools with the Sweetheart logo are desirable collectibles. That being the case, I reckoned that Sweetheart corrugated fasteners might also appeal to a collector. I’ve listed them on Ebay. Nothing ventured, nothing gained (that’s one of my family mottoes).

Do you have a supply of corrugated fasteners in your workshop?