Almost every single screw in the store had a square hole in it. We looked around and found a few Philips head screws, but in very limited numbers that meant we couldn't get what we needed.
I thought, "What the heck?" Had some revolution in screws been implemented since I'd last been in a Home Depot (probably only a few months ago)? Had I just not noticed this seismic shift in the screw world? I consider myself a relatively crafty lady; although I'm generally not building things, tools and such are at least on the periphery of my consciousness. And I mean, contractors shop at Home Depot too--could the entire construction industry have picked up and changed when I wasn't looking? It's hard to see on this page, but most of the screws appear to be the ones with the square holes.
We asked the man about the Philips head screws we wanted, and he said, "oh, well, why don't you want these square head ones?"
"Well," I said, "I've never even seen this type of screw before. We don't have a screwdriver that will work on it."
"Really?" he said, "These screws are a lot better than Philips head. You just put the screw on the screwdriver and it doesn't fall off!"
So B and I decided to give these screws a try, since our options beyond them were extremely limited, and because it gave me an excuse to buy a pink screwdriver, which is fly.
The man was right--you put the screw on the screwdriver and it doesn't fall off, meaning that you don't need to use two hands (one to hold the screwdriver and one to hold the screw). I have the sneaking suspicion that these screws might be better than what I'm used to, although I don't know how they stand up against stripping and that sort of thing.
It turns out that these are called "Robertson" screws, and they're mainly used in Canada. Turns out this guy Robertson invented a screw so awesome that his competitors did some underhanded stuff that almost made him lose his patent. When Henry Ford came along and wanted to license the screws to use on his Ford assembly line, the suspicious Robertson declined and Ford went with Philips head screws instead.
I suppose he's lucky that Thomas Edison didn't find out and steal his idea.
So apparently Canada has been holding out on a better screw head.
