How to Pull a Nail

Pulling nails is an important part of reclaiming used boards. You can start with a porcupine of pine and finishing nails, and with a bit of patience end up with a perfectly good ten-dollar board. Sure, it'll have nail holes and hammer-marks in it, but those just add character. When I use these boards, I give them a light once-over with a sanding sponge, so no splinters are threatening, and use them as-is, aside than that. The slight variations, the evident history of the boards, and the marks from removing nails, screws, and staples, all add charm to the finished project. 

Add a couple of screwdrivers, and you's set!

I know that a lot of people know how to clean up a board, but I bet some don't, and there are a few tips that can help. Here's how I do it. First, some tools...I like to use a pair of sawhorses to work on instead of a workbench or the floor. With nails sticking out of both sides of a board, it's easier to hold it flat on the sawhorses, and they are a good working height. Other tools are a claw-hammer, a cat's paw, a splitting wedge if boards are nailed together, a small board for a fulcrum, and for larger nails, a wrecking bar. For removing staples, flat scredrivers and an assortment of pliers are handy, and for removing screws, a screwdriver, cordless if you like, with the appropriate working tip.

Finish, twist, ring-shank, common.

Nails come in many types, but basically you have a couple of variables. There are plain shanks and twisted- or ring-shanked nails. Flooring nails are an example of ring-shanked, and there are a number of twisted nails, which are designed to stay in place without backing out. What this means to you, in removing them, is that they need to be pulled harder! Plain nails pull out much more easily.  The old-fashioned rectangular nails, called cut nails, come out very easily too, as they are tapered. Once they get started, they are loose immediately. 

The other variable is the head of the nail. Common nails are the ones with a head that is like a tiny coin shape. Those are easier to get a grip on for removing. Finishing nails are the ones with just a little dimpled bump on the top, and they are harder to get a grip on. Sometimes a large pair of pliers work better than a hammer on those. 

Let's say we have a board with three nails in it. One is partly hammered in, with the top end sticking out some. The second is hammered all the way in, and sticks out the other side. The third is hammered all the way in, but isn't long enough to stick out the other side.

The first one is the easiest. All you need to do is slide the claw of the hammer under the nail head, put a board under the hammerhead if there is room, and if you want to avoid denting your board, and pry out the nail. Easy-peasy!

Some nails to pull

A scrap board helps

The second one takes two steps. First, turn the board over, bend the pointed end of the nail with your hammer until it is straight, and pound on the point, driving the head back out the other side. Then turn the board back over and pry it out like the first nail. 

The third one is where the cat's paw comes in. There's no way to hammer the pointy end, and the head is flat or buried so you can't get the hammer claw under it. The cat's paw is designed for this; line it up against the nail-head, and bang it with the hammer right on the curve of the paw, driving its claw under the nail-head. Then pry until the nail comes up a little, and then you can use the hammer on it as above.

Hammer it under the head, then pull

Pound it back through

Once you have all of the nails, screws, and staples removed from the board, you have a usable piece of wood to be proud of, and some nails that you can straighten out and use again. Nails are expensive, and re-using them saves you money as well as the environment. The two basic ways to straighten a nail are to either lay it down on scrap-wood and nail out the bends, or to unbend it with one or two pairs of pliers. It's easy, and doesn't take long.

Channel-locks work as a lever

One last caution for you; if you are planning to cut the board, or rip it to a different size on a table-saw, be VERY thorough about looking for nails. Recently I missed a couple of nail ends that had been cut off with a reciprocating saw during someone's demolition work, so there were no points or nail-heads showing. When I was putting that two-by-four through a table-saw to make a pair of 3 1/2 inch boards, I hit them, making a dramatic shower of sparks, and dulling my thirty-dollar blade terribly.

Now that you know how, I hope you go out there and scrounge up some good usable boards from scrap-piles, transfer stations, collapsed barns, any number of sources, and that you take pride in giving that wood new life in your own projects!