Carpentry: removing spiral nails from old wood

Self-tutoring about applied carpentry: the tutor mentions a trick he learned.

There is a fence around the yard, parts of which are decades old. I’ve mentioned it in many posts, such as in my post from Dec 13, 2022.

Fixing this fence involves improvising with weathered materials. Today, for instance, I’ve been dealing with what I believe is breakage from an animal climbing over it – a small bear, perhaps. (That’s another story, for another post.) One must decide which parts can be re-used vs which are too far gone, as well as how to recondition the ones that will be re-used.

In this case, some of the boards had old nails sticking out, which had to be removed. Yet, attempting to tap them out from the bottom threatened to break the boards. As I mentioned, the wood, though not rotten, isn’t new.

I realized that grabbing the bottom of the nail (sticking out, as I mentioned) with some pliers, then twisting it a couple of revolutions, would loosen the nail’s purchase in the wood. Then, the nail could be tapped out easily from the bottom.

I’m not done yet, but I think I’ve readied the site for the re-build, such as it will be. It’s just part of one panel, anyway: I’m hoping for the best:)

Source:

YouTube: The Bloke Cave: “How to Remove Spiral Nails”