Tooth and Nail trick – a nail inside a wood

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I once saw a strange object on Bill Lee’s desk at Mixercast. He told me what it was but never told me how to make one. That was during the third quarter of 2006.

He did promised to tell me if I ever meet him again; he is currently in California, USA. Well, if you can replicate one or know the trick behind this, do let me know.

  • Mobadass

    You didn’t look very hard … here and here

  • http://www.ojustme.com/ o! Just Me

    Hey that’s cool. Now, I know I can talk cool to Bill.

  • http://freetube.110mb.com/index.php?f=1 Tricks TV

    I guess case solved, still a neat little trick.

  • http://www.ojustme.com/ o! Just Me

    If you listen carefully to what Bill says, he “neither steamed nor boiled” the wood. If that is correct, then the mystery remains.

  • u r fail

    He actually says “The wood hasn’t been steamed, the wood hasn’t been bent or twisted.” No mention of boiling at all.

  • http://www.ojustme.com/ o! Just Me

    Ah! Right. So, he might have “boiled the wood”.

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    Man, what a scam, and I thought it was magic, it’s just science…

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  • http://romanpushkin.blogspot.com/ Roman Pushkin

    Cool trick, man!

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  • George

    You hammer a nail into a tree, and wait about a year or two. The tree will grow over the nail. Then you cut out the section of the tree with the nail in it. and cut out the teeth around the nail. See how grimy the nail is? That’s because it’s been in a tree for so long.

  • yey george

    I remember my dad telling me about this as a kid now… nailing a nail into a tree… cutting it out, perhaps it was part of a larger riddle he was telling me also… happy memories!!

  • BigBadaboom

    If it the nail had been hammered into a tree and left to grow over, then the grain would be perpendicular to the nail, but you can see it isn’t in the video. The grain is parallel to the nail.

    You also have the problem of having to wait several years for the wood to grow enough. Not to mention finding the nail later. :) I suspect the trick is simpler than that.

  • http://www.brainonfire.net/ Tim McCormack

    George: Of course, that wouldn’t work with an oak tree and an iron nail, because the oak tree’s sap will dissolve it.

  • Matt

    You heat the nail up to red hot and bend and slide it in the pre-cut wood.

  • misty

    Either boiling the wood or bending the nail and straightening so that it doesn’t show any bent marks inside the wooded area.

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  • Donny M

    DUH, the tree was grown around the nail!!

  • Clipper

    dude!
    you really need to clip those finger nails!

  • Wayne

    It seems to me that the boiling method would be what might have been used for the example in his hands. If you look closely the tooth in his left hand (right side of the screen) is of a different finish/color, possibly indicating that it has seen an extreme temperature/pressure from the process.

  • Sergio Campos

    Yes! No doubt! The length of the fingernails is, somehow, pointing to the solution of the riddle.

  • Gary

    You know, he said the wood was not bent. After it is boiled, you ARE bending the wood. Any compression is a bend.

  • Juan

    In response to Gary, at the time of this writing post #24. No. Your logic is reversed, any bend involves compression but not all compression results in a bend.

    A bend also is more than just compression it is compression and extension. By definition a bend implies curvature which is not the result of linear compression on its own. Surely applying linear compression can result in the object bending along the axis of compression but this is the result of abnormalities in the material or an off axis application of said force.

    In either case the intention is not to curve the material but rather reduce its volume in a linear fashion by increasing its density through the application of force. As such any observed bending does not violate the established parameters any more than the steaming the rest of the wood, which would occur if the entire piece is not submerged, steaming which would only affect the unworked area and would be insufficient to yield the desired results.