> True Value Hardware and used them without incident. Recently, however, I
> was poking around the local Handy Andy chain outlet, which crows about the
> quality of all their stuff, and was _very_ surprised to find that the bolts
> they sell in bulk had no visible grade marks (or manufacturer marks, come
> to think of it) at all! Now, according to my notes from last year, this
> implies a Grade 3 bolt, which I don't think I've ever seen in captivity
> before, and it also seems to indicate that the manufacturer wishes to remain
> anonymous.
Actually, that's a grade 2 bolt. About as strong a butter, depending on how
cold the butter is.
Beware of hardware store fasteners in general. Lots of the cheap import bolts
may have the grade markings but not have the strength and the corrosion
protection coating may be bad, or the threads could be poorly made, causing
the fastener to fail even though the metal is the right kind.
The best thing to do is to go to a real industrial fastener store and buy
whatever
the minimum order is. Usually around $10.
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