Get a grip and don't let go

Pulling nails can sometimes be like pulling hair—a frustrating and painful experience. But sometimes, getting a grip on a rusted nail or one with a broken off head just doesn’t work, and out of frustration, you end up pounding the nail over and into the wood.  When reusing old moldings restoration carpenters always pull nails through from the back so as not to blow out the wood on the finish side when the set head of a nail pushes through. A new tool made by the Jefferson Tool Company (nice name!) called The Extractor just made nail pulling a piece of cake. The pliers like tool has parallel jaws with serrated teeth that cant backwards like those of a great white shark. To use The Extractor, you slip the jaws over the offending fastener, grab hold, and pull the handles toward the larger curved jaw, rolling the nail right out of the wood. When I got a pair of these tenacious pliers I knew just what to try them on. Someone had pounded hardened masonry nails into the century-old stone foundation of my house. I’d previously tried to use a hammer to pull the nails. No go. The hammer claw just slid up the nail’s shank without budging them. I used The Extractor on a handful of the imbedded nails and it was insanely easy to pull them out. I can see that I'll be using The Extractor for jobs other than pulling nails whenever I want to get a grip on something and not let go. This is an excellent, high-quality tool.