  Platonic crystals (PCs) are the elastic plate analogue of the photonic
crystals widely used in optics, and are thin structured elastic plates along
which flexural waves cannot propagate within certain stop band frequency
intervals. The practical importance of PCs is twofold: these can be used either
in the design of microstructured acoustic metamaterials or as an approximate
model for surface elastic waves propagating in meter scale seismic
metamaterials. Here, we make use of the band spectrum of PCs created with very
small clamped holes, the nails of the title, to achieve surface wave reflectors
at very large wavelengths, a flat lens, an endoscope, a directive antenna near
stop band frequencies and cloaking from Dirac cones. The point pinned, Faqir,
plate is particularly appealing as there is an exact dispersion relation
available so the origin of these phenomena can be explained and interpreted
using Fourier series and high frequency homogenization.
