Classic content: My '62 Paramount has chromed track dropouts and uses a bolted hub, in this case a converted NTipo.
There's no mistake in reasoning there that I can see, but maybe I'm biased. The issue was not one of adequacy, where I agree with you, they both "can" be adequate, but one of relative clamping pressure. As far as the strength of a bolted connection, as with anything else, the strength of the assembly is only as great as its weakest link. If the case of nuts and bolts, the strength of the nut's threads in shear could/would/should equal or exceed the the tensile strength of the bolt/axle. Whether or not this is the case in all nuts and axles as it applies to all nutted hubs, I can't comment, I've never tried to tighten one to failure. You can make the case that not all hub nuts are properly designed, but the same is true for skewers. A wash. Obviously an axle that has flats on it, ala Sturmey's, etc., the threads in the nuts have a reduced area to purchase and would be far weaker unless the nut was threaded deeply.
As far as the ultimate strength of skewers, it's failure point will be at it's weakest area, typically either the connection at the cam, the stress concentration at the end of the threading where it stops on the rod, or at the reduced cross section of the threading itself. I don't think my comments inferred that the QR's failure would have anything to do with overtightening the nut and cause a skewer failure by twisting the skewer rod off, it's simply the yield of the material.
Cheers! Don Ferris Littleton, Colorado
************** There's a fundamental fallacy in that argument.
Yes, if you manage to overtighten a QR skewer, the skewer rod will snap, but that is not the failure mode of an overtightened nut.
In the case of a nutted hub, overtightening will result in stripped threads, not a snapped axle. This failure will occur well below a stress level that is at risk for snapping the axle.
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