M6 x 37mm Star Recessed Screw

Foil Hardware Naming Guide

While foil hardware names are probably longer than yours and can seem confusing at first, they do follow a pattern, and we'll break it down for you here.

M6 or M8?

No, it's not a secret intelligence service for the likes of James Bolt; these numbers refer to the width, or diameter, of your screw. (Yeah, these are technically screws; more on that later.) The "M" stands for "metric", and the number is the diameter of your hardware in millimeters including the threads. So just grab a ruler and eyeball it. Easy. Or you can get fancy and use calipers.

How Long Is It?

This is also in millimeters. This is why we all had to learn the metric system in school: so that we could measure the parts for our foils. Totally worth it.

As simple as it seems, there is a trick to knowing what to measure here. Some lengths include the head of the screw while others only include the shank (the long, skinny part).

The basic rule is that only the part that goes inside the hole counts. So you'll measure the whole length of a screw that sits flush with the surface, but only the shank of a screw whose head protrudes outside of the hole. These screws all use 30mm in their name, even though they're clearly not related to one another.

Drive Type

You're probably familiar with Phillips and slotted heads, but most foils use star/Torx or hex/Allen drives. The generic names pretty much give away what they look like, but of course we also have a pretty picture for our visual learners.

Head Shape

To determine the head shape, just look at your screw from the side. Most foils use one of three shapes.

• If it's cone-shaped, it's recessed or countersunk.
• If it's a cylinder, it's a socket head.
• If it's rounded, it's a button head.

So, you might have an "M8 x 30mm Star Recessed screw" in your foil. Or you might not. But now you can tell.

Bonus Fact: Screw or Bolt?

First off, you can use either word and we'll know what you mean. We won't even judge you, mostly because we use them interchangeably ourselves. But for the sake of trivia fun...

Screws are generally threaded along the whole length and, more importantly, use friction to stay in place and usually won't protrude out the other side.

Bolts don't always have threads along the entire length since the part that's inside the hole doesn't need to be threaded and threading weakens the shear force of the bolt. A bolt is longer than the hole so that it can be fixed in place with a nut screwed onto the end of the bolt.

Foil Hardware Guide © MACkiteboarding.com