I finally started predrilling old pine trim and stopped splitting it
Kept blowing out the ends of 80 year old casing on a porch job in Salem, so I tried drilling a 1/16 pilot bit about 3/4 inch deep before driving 4d finish nails. Went from splitting one board out of four to zero splits on the rest of the house, and the heads still set clean. Anyone else have a pilot hole size they swear by for brittle old growth, or do you just grab thinner nails?
Tbh I read somewhere that old growth pine gets so hard it's basically petrified, so a pilot hole is almost mandatory. 1/16 sounds about right for a 4d, I've also heard guys wax the nails to help them slide in without tearing up the wood.