flat-head screw(driver)s

[Mark_Mandel at DRAGONSYS.COM]

Greg Pulliam <greg at PULLIAM.ORG> writes:

>>>>>
     [...]
I call them "phillips-head" and "flat-head"
screwdrivers.  I don't know (as I think about it now) if I picked
"flat-head" up from Dad or from living in the deep and mid- south.
<<<<<

And others here also speak of "flat-head screwdrivers".

I'm not a hardware geek by any means, but from shopping in hardware stores for
screws to match the ones I've got for a particular job at home, I've learned
that "flat-head screws" are distinguished from, I think, "oval-head screws" by
the profile of the top, and are so shown on the box. The criterion is, Is the
top literally flat (apart from the cut for the screwdriver head) or does it
bulge into a curved surface? This is a separate dimension from the cut*, which
is what this thread has been about up to now: Phillips vs. straight.

* for lack of a more precise word

So the term may be used differently by
 - the manufacturers (and maybe those who deal professionally with the hardware,
such as carpenters and cabinetmakers) and
 - some of the rest of us.

-- Mark