nail set

nail set (plural nail sets)

1. (carpentry) A punch that drives in a nail so that its head is level with or below the surface.
   • 1939 July, Albert W. Stein, Popular Science, volume 135, number 1:

     In an emergency a nail set can be made in a few minutes from a tenpenny or other large nail. Cut off the point with hack saw or grinding wheel, clamp the nail in the vise, indent the end by tapping it with a center punch, and taper or bevel the end on the grinding wheel as shown.

   • 1998, Craig Savage, Trim Carpentry Techniques: Installing Doors, Windows, Base, and Crown:

     Throw away a damaged nail set. It's cheap enough to replace, and there's no reason to destroy a piece of molding with a damaged nail set that slips off the mark.

   • 2007, David Thiel, I Can Do That! Woodworking Projects:

     The tool to do this is a nail set, which is essentially a pointy steel rod.

• nail punch

• Latines, alestin, elastin, entails, nailest, salient, saltine, staniel, stealin', tselina