Info on Stucco and Plastering-September, 2020-sixty-second issue
What is meant by "Mouthing Nails" ?
Mouthing nails is a lost skill which should remain lost.
A lather would put nails in his mouth and spit them out point first into his left hand and drive the nail with his right hand. Of course this is reversed for a left handed person.
All this was explained to me by my late friend, George Wagner. George was a union lather whose father was a lather that worked on the pentagon when it was built.
George demonstrated he could still mouth nails with a little practice. This was the only time I have seen this done.
In the 1950's, the union insisted that nails should be sterilized before a lather would mouth the nails.
Still there were other health implications like metal oxides and who knows what could fall into the nails.
There was always the danger of swallowing the nails. Contractors back then would insist that lathers be able to mouth nails.