Pulling Stubborn Nails

So there i was on this beautiful Midwestern Wednesday morning, looking around the yard and trying to muster up the mojo to get things cleaned up a bit. Lo & behold: there in the southern 1/4 sits the old oak pallet that’s been laying around for years.

I says to myself ‘Hmmm, what a wonderful addition to the lumber stock that would make! Just pull a few nails and Wallah!’ I says.

I clamp on with my trusty nail puller and promptly split a board; didn’t budge the nail of course. K, THAT won’t work. Wonderbar under the board, same thing. After much deliberation I just sawed off the boards at the runners, dropping one runner on my sandled foot ( I know, go ahead & let me have it safety folks ).

Now I have the runners with little bits of board and those blasted nails. I wanted to save the runners for use in whatever project might present itself, so I split off the remaining board bits leaving just the nails from hell.

The nail puller just broke off the nail leaving about 1/4” peeking up above the surface.

Thinking about similar things (ie: rusted on bolts working on cars … how they relate I don’t know, but, in my mind, they do … I grabbed a cheap propane torch and the 18” channel-locks. I’d warm up the nail ‘til it was a satisfying orange glow, locked onto it with the channel-locks, and out it slid. EASY !

My question is: How do you LumberJockers & LumberJockerettes pull those nasty, stubborn nails?

-- Dragonsrite, Minnesota