Nail Puller
A nail puller like the ones reviewed in Cool Tools earlier (here and here) is not the best. It will gouge a quite horrible crater in your material unless the nail is at the surface, or just the right size. With this one, on the other hand, I can extract a headless nail from more than a centimeter inside a beam. The wood was not unscratched of course, but since it was compressed rather than splintered, a bit of water can make it swell back up somewhat.
-- Gaute Amundsen
This design is not new. You can find antique nail pullers like this hundreds of years old. The sharp teeth of this tool are perfect for slicing into the wood, yanking out deep air-hammered nails, or finishing nails from a surface you care about. There are several different makes; none are cheap, but these last a lifetime.
-- KK
Cooper Group 56 Nail Puller
$45
Available from Amazon
Bahco Nail Puller
$61
Available from Builder Depot
Favorite (15)
Jess Davis
Gotta comment on this one--I have one of these, inherited from my father, and it's a great tool for getting out difficult nails with minimal damage. I used it to pull hundreds of nails that were holding down the corrugated, perforated steel floor of a 6800 bushel granary that we moved. The tin floor was very easy to damage, and nothing would pull the nails out without tearing it up. This slide-hammer thing let me hammer the jaws down tight on the nailhead, and they just pulled right out. Re-used every one, since they were cement nails for some reason, and all perfectly straight. Good stuff.
Jess Davis, Davis Precision Design, Inc. www.davisprecisiondesign.com
michael foley
I want to add that there are three new designs out now that most people have never seen...the Nail Jack, the Nail Hunter and coming soon, the industrial version of the Nail Shark. These will be a new effective series of nail pulling solutions.
Brian Hayes
I've used the new invention from M. Foley, the NailJack. (nailjack.com). I was delighted and surprised that the tweaks he's folded into the design are top notch. It's faster, easier, safer to pull out many types of nails and such. Getting out in the market must be tough, but if you see these new nail pullers, I'm saying they make a solid contribution.