Editing Tap and die (section)

==History==
While modern nuts and bolts are routinely made of [[metal]], this was not the case in earlier ages, when [[woodworking]] tools were employed to fashion very large wooden bolts and nuts for use in [[winch]]es, [[windmill]]s, [[watermill]]s, and [[flour mill]]s of the [[Middle Ages]]; the ease of cutting and replacing wooden parts was balanced by the need to resist large amounts of [[torque]], and bear up against ever heavier loads of weight.  As the loads grew even heavier, bigger and stronger bolts were needed to resist breakage.  Some nuts and bolts were measured by the foot or yard.  This  development eventually led to a complete replacement of wood parts with metal parts of an identical measure.  When a wooden part broke, it usually snapped, ripped, or tore.  With the splinters having been sanded off, the remaining parts were reassembled, encased in a makeshift mold of [[clay]], and molten metal poured into the mold, so that an identical replacement could be made on the spot.

<gallery>
File:Löffelholz-Codex Ms-Berol-Germ-Qu-132 Fol 002v.png|Die and tap from Löffelholz-Codex (Nuremberg 1505)
File:Löffelholz-Codex Ms-Berol-Germ-Qu-132 Fol 003r.png|Opened die from Löffelholz-Codex (Nuremberg 1505)
</gallery>

Metalworking taps and dies were often made by their users during the 16th and 17th centuries (especially if the user was skilled in tool making), using such tools as [[Lathe (metal)|lathes]] and [[File (tool)|files]] for the shaping, and the [[Blacksmith|smithy]] for hardening and tempering. Thus builders of, for example, locomotives, firearms, or textile machinery were likely to make their own taps and dies. During the 19th century the [[machining]] industries evolved greatly, and the practice of buying taps and dies from suppliers specializing in them gradually supplanted most such in-house work. [[Joseph Clement]] was one such early vendor of taps and dies, starting in 1828.<ref name="Roe1916p58">{{Harvnb|Roe|1916}}, [https://archive.org/details/englishandameri01roegoog/page/n102 p. 58.]</ref> With the introduction of more advanced [[Milling machine|milling]] practice in the 1860s and 1870s, tasks such as cutting a tap's flutes with a hand file became a thing of the past. In the early 20th century, [[Threading (manufacturing)#Thread grinding|thread-grinding]] practice went through significant evolution, further advancing the state of the art (and applied science) of cutting screw threads, including those of taps and dies.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, [[Screw thread#History of standardization|thread standardization was evolving]] simultaneously with the [[Threading (manufacturing)|techniques of thread generation]], including taps and dies.

The largest tap and die company to exist in the United States was [[Kennametal#WIDIA_Products_Group|Greenfield Tap & Die (GTD)]] of [[Greenfield, Massachusetts]].  GTD was so vital to the Allied war effort from 1940–1945 that anti-aircraft guns were placed around its campus in anticipation of possible Axis air attack{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}. The GTD brand is now a part of Widia Products Group.