I am going to lay about 150 sf of 3" wide black cherry hardwood floors in my dining room. I am an in between intermediate/advanced woodworker, so I am going to attempt to mill my own flooring. I already have a set of standard tongue and groove shaper cutters which will produce a square tonge. You may think that I am crazy, but I want to hand nail the entire floor. It seems that 2 in long nails are standard for the floor nailers. Is there a special nail made for hand nailing? I imagined a finish nail with ring shanks.

Most flooring that I see has a rounded tongue. Does anyone think that a square tongue will cause any major problems with pulling the boards together?

No you may just need to beat them together a little more. We mill all of our wide plank Pine and Oak ourselves, it is really not that hard. What I have found works better than a T&G bit is a straight bit to cut the tongue and a slot cutter bit to cut the grooves on an hand router with a guide. You can use a table but if you are using long pieces it can move up or down due to a bow and miss mill the board. With a straight bit you do each side of the tongue separately and with the hand router you are guaranteed that it will follow any bows in the wood. It takes a little longer but it is far more accurate. You will find that the square edges tend to lock the boards together pretty tight. Another word of advice, mill all of your wood at once, cut both sides of the tongue and then switch to the slot cutter bit and cut the grooves. Use a test piece to cut your first groove and make sure that the tongue and grove line up and create a flush surface. If they do not adjust your slot cutter up or down. As well if the fit is too tight then add some spacers between the blades of your slot cutter to widen the grove a little. Other than that use your straight bit to put about 3 1/4 “ deep groves down the boards for movement relief.

kls, good advice. Do you think that a table saw blade kerf would work for the 1/4" deep grooves on the bottom or do you need a wider slot?

Any advise on nails to use for hand nailing?

There is a nail called a flooring nail. I have seen it at Ace Hardware but not anywhere else. It has a large finish head similar to a casing nail and a screw shank. It's two inches long.

http://www.cwc.ca/products/connections/ ... _types.php

Bigjake,

I overlooked that you are using 3” board. Yes you can cut the relief with a table saw for that small of a board. The most common nail used to face nail is a ring shank nail as it has a lot of holding power. If you are looking for an authentic look you will have to go with a square cut nail. The only thing to remember with using a cut nail is you also must run a bead of urethane glue on the bottom of your boards as cut nails do not have a lot of holding power and tend to loosen over time.

I did not want to face nail the floor, just not the look that I was going for. I was going off an article that I read sometime ago that said face nailing wasn't required for 3-1/4" and under strips. Do you think I will be OK if I stick to 3" wide strips?

Oh OK I get you, usually when people say had nail they are talking about face nailing, I just assumed. You can use a ring nail to hand nail it but be careful to not hit the tongue or your will bust it off.