Brass screws vs Silicon Bronze screws

[Brad_bb]

Speaking of Bronze....
I recently I went to install some reproduction antique 1800's style registers.  I also bought a bunch of traditional style pulls for double hung windows.  Each of them came with brass phillips oval head screws.

Have you ever tried installing brass screws?  Seriously I don't know why they even make them because they are always too soft and you end up slightly deforming the drive slots even when you are careful.  

I pre-drill the hole, I lube the screw with wax, but inevitably that last little way to cinch it down, you get some deformation, the finish gets messed up, or you snap off the screw.  This is especially true in hardwood despite the pre-drilling.

So lately I've been buying Silicon Bronze screws.  They are far stronger.  They also come in a slotted head which is more appropriate if you are trying to make something look older.  You can do different things to color the screw heads after install if you want.  These screws seem to be sold to boat builders for wood installations on boats.  Corrosion resistant I guess and stronger than brass.


Brass 

[Bruno of NH]

I've used them for years 
And had good luck with them

[Larry]

After pre-drilling put in a steel screw lubed with paraffin.  Take the steel screw back out and go in with the brass screw.  Even than one has to be careful, but if one is using high dollar brass hinges not much else to do.

[DWyatt]

Does the silicon component provide some sort of lubricant for the screw? I use brass screws in the Post Office Box Banks that I make to match the 'style' of the old brass doors. Hands down, the worst part of the build is installing the doors with the 1/2" #6 screws because I will inevitably twist of one of the heads off. This is after pre-drilling and waxing ALL of those tiny screws!

[21incher]

My dad used to have a set of tee handled tools that I think were called gimlets that he would use to make prethreaded holes for brass screws. The end of them looked like a screw thread and just poke it in some wax and thread the pilot hole.

[Savannahdan]

I typically use the pre-drill and lubed steel screw method that Larry mentioned.  One source of the gimlets is Lehmans

[Bruno of NH]

21
I have seen them 
My 96 year old Pepere left me all his old tools he was head a maintenance at a big woollen mill untill it closed.
Then he went to work at Dartmouth College running the shop at the engineering school.
He also made wooden clocks.
I remember the tool
I have boxes still to look in
I hope I find it.
Some of my relatives went in and made a mess looking for brass and shuch before I got in.
I think they took parts of tools >:(
I like old tools
That bothered me because I would use them 
Bruno