17 Awesome All-American Inventions for DIYers

MAZE NAILS: FROM FREEBIE TO INDUSTRY LEADER

Samuel Nesbitt Maze entered the lumber business in 1848 and sold high-quality cedar shingles. Trouble was, the steel nails of the time didn’t last nearly as long as the shingles. So Samuel’s son Walter bought a used nail machine to produce zinc nails.

At first, they gave these rust-proof nails away to customers who purchased the rest of their roofing materials at Maze Lumber.When the price of zinc skyrocketed in the early 1900s, Maze developed a system for dipping steel nails into vats of molten zinc. These ZINCLAD nails were even more popular with carpenters because they were harder than zinc and still rust resistant.