During our encounters with decking builders, joiners and other users of oakwood we have come across a host of insider tips and tricks that are used when working with oakwood. As you probably know, when working with oak you cannot use standard steel screws as the sap in the wood causes these to corrode. This means that a lot of people opt instead to use stainless steel screws. These are just a few of the tips that we have come across when working with stainless steel woodscrews:

  • Pre drill a hole with a standard screw first – Quite often woodscrews aren’t self-tapping so there must be a pre drilled hole in place for the woodscrew to be thread into. A self-tapping screw can be used to create the thread to drill your woodscrew into. Our stainless steel woodscrews are self-tapping so there would be no need for this trick to be used but it could be handy otherwise. Some builders often like to pre drill a hole first even if there screw is self-tapping as this can help reduce the likeliness that the head will shear off when turning into the wood.
  • Use a small amount of Vaseline or grease smeared on your woodscrew – To help when screwing your woodscrews into place. Adding a small amount of grease or Vaseline allows the screw to be screwed in, and out again, more easily. Make sure not to use too much though as this could lead to staining or discolouration of the wood.
  • Scrape your screw along a candle – Once again to help with screwing and unscrewing your woodscrew into place. By drawing your screw along an old candlestick you get wax along your screw. Builders have been using different methods for lubricating screws for a while and quite often using soap has been a go to technique. Soap has been found to hold the humidity of the wood though which can cause standard steel screws to rust. This is why the new suggestion from many is to use the wax from a candle.

We come across many tips from expert builders, joiners and engineers. Subscribe to our newsletter to receive more of these and other great benefits such as discount codes and exclusive offers.

We sell stainless steel woodscrews and self-tapping screws in a range of sizes.