Crown Stapler vs Brad Nailer: When to Use Each Type of Nail Gun

For a variety of household and DIY projects, you will need to fasten and hook things together. ​For this process, you may be torn between using a crown stapler vs brad nailer. Both offer good adhering capabilities depending on the type of material you are looking to piece together.

Deciding on whether to use a crown stapler vs brad nailer really boils down to the type of woodworking project you are working on and whether you are looking for a permanent or temporary hold.

Feature	Crown Stapler	Brad Nailer
Primary Use	Fastening fabric to wood, especially upholstery	Adhering wood to wood, baseboards, crown molding
Fastening Type	Crown staples	Brad nails (18-gauge)
Visibility of Fastener	Larger holes, more visible	Smaller holes, less visible
Removability	Difficult, can damage wood	Very difficult, not designed to be removed
Typical Power Source	Compressed air, battery, electricity	Compressed air, battery, electricity
Specialization vs Versatility	More specialized, mainly for upholstery	More versatile, multiple woodworking projects

My Top Pick

​​In my reviews, I pick the ​​ ​​BOSTITCH 18GA Nailer Kit to be the best available. It can handle brad nails from 5/8 inch to 2 1/8 inches, and comes with an incredible 7 year warranty.

Crown Staplers & Brad Nailers

Before I dive into which tool is best for your need, be aware that traditionally both crown staplers and nail guns are run through compressed air, which requires you to own an air compressor.

Many DIYers do not own a compressor. The good news is that, in recent years, both of these options run by battery power, electricity, or hand power, have come on the market. 

Both tools provide a lot of benefit, and now DIYers can have all these benefits without needing to own an air compressor.

What is a Crown Stapler?

A crown stapler is essentially a staple gun. These staple guns use crown staples instead of nails, which is what is used by nail guns.

It provides a sturdy grip and holds well. It is a permanent fastening solution that uses crown staples with a round or flat head. This allows for a strong hold when fastening material to a wood surface such as upholstery. 

When you view this crown stapler as a nail gun that uses crown staples, you can start to see how many uses it has.

When To Use a Crown Stapler?

Crown staplers have a variety of applications but are most often used to hold fabric to a wood surface. They are ideally used to keep fabric in place when upholstering furniture.

They provide a strong grip that can make your upholstery fabric tight like a quality upholstery staple gun for furniture would. ​It will also retain the exact shape you are looking to achieve when covering a piece of furniture such as a chair seat or couch structure. Narrow crown staples ensure you don’t see any evidence of the staples. Check this TRE550Z.

You can also use crown staplers to make bent laminations, which is where you laminate thin strips of wood together ​in a curved pattern for chairs. Crown staplers makes it easy to hold the laminations together while the glue dries. 

You can use crown staples for building and repairing cabinets and drawers. You’ll also often find crown staples used on the backs of picture frames to hold the image and glass in.

There is a subtle difference to be aware of: narrow crown stapler vs wide crown stapler. Generally speaking, the more delicate the project, the more you should opt for narrow staples.

Crown staplers come in three main types:

• Narrow Crown: narrow crown staples, also marked by the 90 series, are very narrow and hardly noticeable when they go into wood. These narrow crown staples are very thin, though, so their holding power is not as a strong as other crowns. Use a narrow crown stapler when you don’t want to see any signs of the staple.
• Medium Crown: medium crown staples are perhaps seen as the best of both worlds, where you get a sturdy staple with good holding power while also reducing some of its visibility. A medium stapler is probably the best option for most projects. Their staple is usually 16 or 19 gauge.
• Wide Crown: wide crown staples are very sturdy and robust, with strong holding power, built to handle heavy duty staple applications. Used for crown molding, roofing, house wrap, and fencing, their applications don’t really extend to upholstery or any other more traditional DIY uses. Their staple is usually 15-16 gauge.

Narrow crown staplers are probably the most common, but just know that they don’t have the same holding power as medium and wide crown staplers.

What is a Brad Nailer?

A brad nailer offers a different fastening approach than crown staplers. This is a nail gun that uses compressed air to drive a brad nail into a wood surface.

A brad nailer uses small diameter 18-gauge nails with a small pinhead​. The brad goes into both pieces of wood, holding them together while only leaving a very small hole on the surface.

​Brads are not designed to be removed. They are very difficult to remove unless you separate the pieces of wood and then pull them out individually. In other words, don’t use brad nails as a temporary fastener. 

When To Use a Brad Nailer?

You would most often use brad nailers to adhere two surfaces together such as a baseboard or crown molding in your home or a furniture piece that you are adding finishing strips on. Check this ​​BOSTITCH 18GA Nailer Kit

Because brad nailers use smaller gauge nails, you are able to adhere thinner strips of wood to a surface without worrying about splintering.

It also only leaves a small hole with its nail head, much less visible than the staple a stapler leaves behind. If interested, you can easily fill the small hole with wood putty. 

Brad nailers are very easy to use, especially if you pick up a newer ​one that doesn’t rely on compressed air.

A top rated 18 gauge brad nailer will be powerful and easy to use, allowing you to quickly move through the process.

Crown Stapler vs Brad Nailer

Selecting between a crown stapler vs a brad nailer really depends on the application you have planned for your fastening tool. The wood or material type dictates the need for a stapler vs a nailer as well as if you plan to keep the wood piece fastened permanently

Check out these similarities and differences between a stapler and a nailer to determine which tool will suit you best.

You could just as easily call this a debate between a staple gun vs nail gun, as that is (in essence) what I’m talking about here:

Similarities

• Both brad nailers and crown staplers are used to adhere two materials together.
• Both brad nailers and crown staplers are (typically) operated by compressed air and drive the fastener into the wood surface that you are working with.
• Both brad nailers and crown staplers are powerful in their design and can drive either a staple or nail into a wood surface with incredible force, depending on which fastening tool you are using.
• Both brad nailers and crown staplers are designed for use on furniture, with the nailer offering more versatility in other applications.
• ​Both are designed as a permanent solution.

​Differences

• One of the pitfalls of a stapler is the large holes that it leaves on a wood surface. If you were to pull out the crown staples that it has driven in, you will certainly have damage to the wood piece.
• A brad nailer, on the other hand, leaves ​very small hole marks.
• This type of stapler is ​really only designed for one type of project: upholstery. A brad nailer, on the other hand, can be used on a multitude of woodworking projects. 

Generally speaking, these are very different tools that have a somewhat similar appearance. The crown stapler is perfect to fasten fabric to wood, while the brad nailer is perfect for applying wood to wood.

​​The nailer is more versatile, while staple guns are much more specialized.​​​ It comes down to deciding how much holding power you need vs how visible you want the staple or nail to be. I hope this helps you select which tool is best for your DIY projects.