If you’re not familiar, [here’s an article on cut nails](https://www.bobvila.com/articles/446-cut-nails-hammering-home-authenticity/). I understand that smashing cut nails into wood smashes the fibers and creates friction, but how do masonry cut nails work on a low level? My understanding may be incorrect, but I assume as you pound the nail in, it just shoves more and more granular stone backwards – so wouldn’t it just be creating a much larger hole towards the top (and since it’s a very smooth nail, wouldn’t it be easy to slide right out?)
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They work in the same way any other nail does-friction. The nail pushes the wood to the side to make room for itself. This means the wood is pushing back against the nail, and it creates a lot of friction along the entire nail
For nailing stuff into a masonry wall you’d normally nail into the mortar joints. These are softer, particularly in an older wall, and you can realistically compact the mortar out of the way with the nail strikes while driving the nail in.
Hammering into brick is tougher – a pilot hole would help a lot. One thing missing with the cracking – when the bricks/concrete masonry blocks are in a wall there is a lot of confinement to them. This helps greatly in stopping them from splitting as there’s nowhere for them to split into.
All this said – there are good reasons masonry cut nails are a somewhat archaic construction product – there are a number of modern alternatives that provide better and more reliable connections to brick/concrete masonry that have actual engineered design values.
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