I wonder why this kind of screws are not more popular? Is it really that much harder to produce them or there is some other reason for not being used everywhere? You can use them either with flathead⁤ or ​Phillips head screwdriver, looks like win-win solution?

It's juts a way to strip the same screw head twice

I do a lot of DIY and have all manner of screws in my shed gathered across the years. These ones are a rarity.

Also, I hate flatheads.

Square head or torx or gtfo

Here's an actual photograph you can use for this thread, instead of that cgi/ai slop monstrosity

Nah, it's a lose-lose situation. Flatheads suck, and philips are crappy too. Just use hex, torx, or Robertson for everything and the world would be a better place.

I rarely see flatheads anyway. No one uses them on new stuff, and old stuff has often had them replaced with something better. I kinda feel like this is a solution looking for a problem.

🚨🫎🚨 MOOSE ALERT 🚨🫎🚨

🚨🫎🚨 MOOSE ALERT 🚨🫎🚨

THE MOOSE IS LOOSE, I REPEAT, THE MOOSE IS LOOSE

If I want to carefully losen a phillips screw that has a damaged "+" which looks more like a "O" I sometimes use a dremel to cut a flat head like this "Ø" to turn it out. Yours seems to have that feauture inbuilt so I'd prefer to find them over an ordinary phillips screw. However, If I get to choose the screw myself, then I go torx or hex.

I love that this is a common conversation. Allow me to pick up where we left off. No we don't use them because flatheads are bullshit. A flathead screw driver always slides out at speeds comparable to the average speed of other heads. And don't get me started on phillips. They are designed to strip. Then you need a square head to remove it, so you might as well start there. Default square head. Other than square is inferior to star. Torx is the one true driver!

rightly so!!! those slippery ass mf-er's have cut/bruised my hands more times than i care to remember.

The Canadians have it figured out with the Robertson being a common alternative

The rest of us are living in the dark ages

Pretty sure that was 3D modeling. It gave me Autodesk Inventor vibes.

Here in Canada we do things right. You trying a Robertson head once, feel how the drill never jumps out of the screw, you will wish you were Canadian too.

There's a lot of science behind modern screw heads, and things have moved on massively since the battle between flat and cross head screws was a thing - back in the 70's, these were quite common, but recently, particularly on tools and gadgets, torx (6 pointed star head) is more popular, mainly because they reduce the chance of head stripping during manufacture massively. Combo screw heads were introduced into manufacturing because + head drivers are self-centring, are less strippable, and work better with powered drivers, but field repairers often only had flat head drivers. These days, I only carry one or two flat heads when I do the repair cafe, but mostly posi and philips, with a set of torx, and tiny exotic, and security bits. Most electric tools (drills, hedge trimmers, chainsaws, etc.) have torx or security torx. Electronics usually have philips or posi, occasionally torx or exotic. Electric kettles usually have mostly philips with a single exotic security head to prevent end-users from getting inside and electrocuting themselves.

For woodwork, I usually use posidrive heads, and occasionally torx. Most posi heads will work with a philips bit, but chew up more.

Wait till you try Torx Plus

I tend to see these:

Or these:

Though I'd prefer Torx or just plain Robertson (square)

Torx is quite common nowadays

Good comment to add some more info here. I wasn't trying to claim superiority of this screw. As an afterthought I figured that adding that additional cut for flathead screwdriver compatibility, could have been helpful with stripped heads recovery. I'm gonna try to buy some of those canadians screws, looks hard to strip.

I'll add few more here, in case someone wants to know how some of the screw heads mentioned look like.

Torx or nothing. Hex maybe.

Look at the slot. It is not straight. It would take effort to make it crooked like that in CAD.

So I am also guessing it is AI.

those Canadians screws

you mean Robertson, yeah, they are the best.

The slot looks straight to me, but it's hard for me to tell given the angle. It has a chamfer around all the openings, but that isnt difficult in 3D modeling software, either. It does have a strange blurriness along the slot, which could be AI.

Image source

While that doesn't prove it isn't AI or even a 3D model, a company like this would be the last to need either. Could be the slot is a little out of focus.

Robertson's efficient manufacturing technique using cold forming for the screw's head is what made the idea a commercial success, so it looks like Canadian popularized it, even though it was patented by US earlier but not commercially manufactured.

I use flatheads mostly on the covers of wall plates, and then you need Philips once you get the face off.

In your diagram, what is the difference between “flat head” and “Philips head”?

Here you can take a deeper dive into details.

Oh shit I forgot about those dumb things.

TIL that Pozidriv is most common where I live.

Really only on things like bike lights and such where you want to be able to use a random piece of scrap to open them up.

Finland here.

From personal experience it appears that pre 80's builds tend to have flat heads and some Philips. After that mostly types similat to Philips. After mid 90's torx started to appear more and more. After 00's torx heads started to be a majority and still are.

Have seen some combined screws but they are rare.

Edit: Shit. Meant to post on OP root. Since i'm on waydroid and copy-paste does not currently work, here it stays.

P. L. Robertson invented the Robertson screw and screwdriver in 1906 and received the Canadian patent in 1907 (CA103387, U.S. patent CA103387A) and US patent in 1911 (U.S. patent 1,003,657) for a manufacturing machine.
The cold forming was a separate patent.

Roberston refused to license to the US and Henry Ford because Ford was being a dick.

Torx sucks when screws start to corrode, and when screws are coated.

How is the Robertson doing better in this regard?

JIS forever. Or Torx please.

I hadn't seen one for a few years until today. Then this pops up on my feed.

I am vaguely and generally suspicious