Wonky Woodwork: De-nailing reclaimed wood

I got loads of 2x4s from my other halfs' dad who recently redid his kitchen floor. I planned to build a small wood shelter next to the shed so my wood collection can have a more appropriate home (and I can take down the tarp from the wall that was meant to be a "temporary" solution)

I checked the weather forecast for today and it was meant to be dry during the day which is good as I don't have an indoor workshop. Unfortunately I forgot to check the weather forecast for the night... it rained and all my wood is wet so I couldn't do anything with it apart from de-nailing it.

Picture 1 Workmate with footrest
did a really good job

I thought I would be clever and look up how that should be done properly.

The general advice is to use a bit of scrap wood between your hammer/pry bar and the wood in order to protect it (and pry bars are supposedly better, but I don't have one). The scrap wood not only serves as a protector but can also help you to get stubborn, long nails out (Picture 2) I used a claw hammer (metal shaft) and a rubber hammer, which worked absolutely fine. I used my Black and Decker workmate (Amazon link) to clamp the wood and bring it to a more accessible height. I was really surprised how well it worked. Yes it does move and wobbles a bit, but what do you expect of something so portable and light? I spent an extra 20 quid to get the one with a footrest, so I can hold it down and that usually does the trick.

Picture 2 a bit of wood makes pulling out
long nails a lot easier

The 2x4 had all sorts of rusty nails in it and some were easier than others. The ones with small heads where the most difficult as their heads tended to bend and leave no bit to get a grip on the nail. The method I found worked the best for pretty much all nails was to use the claws of the claw hammer to get under the nail, hold the hammer just over the T so I could use the rubber hammer to hit against the handle. I started hitting the handle low to loosen the nails and then gradually went higher to get the nail out completely (usually 4-5 strokes).

Picture 3 Holding the hammer just over the T to keep it in place and have the handle free to hit with the Rubber hammer. I start by hitting the lower end first to loosen the nail first and then gradually hit it the handle higher to increase the force exerted on the nail (without me having to hit harder). This way it is less likely that you destroy the head of the nail without pulling it out (making it a lot harder to get out)

Physics will tell us that if we have more leverage we exert a greater force, thus the higher you hit on the handle the more force you will have to pull out the nail. So naturally one would assume that using a lot of force to get the nail out is good. However this is a sure way to bend your nail head or snap the nail. At the beginning you just want to "shock" it to loosen it a little bit and then gradually pull harder to get it out completely. This method worked consistently with all the different nails today (even with the ones that barely had a head).

Sometimes however you will encounter nails that haven't got any head anymore (or never had one to start with). Then you can use the rubber hammer to hammer the claws into the nail by hitting the hammer head of the claw hammer (picture). This way your claws will bite into the nail and get some grip. Be sure to start gently when you then pull it out otherwise it is really easy to destroy the little grooves you just created in the nail. Usually it takes a few times from different sides to get the headless nail out.

You can bend what is sticking out of the nail over one of your claws (with a second hammer). This way the bent nail will act a bit like a head, if you nail is very rusty you might break it off though.

If a nail proves tricky to come out, have a little look whether you can find out which way it is going in the wood (Not everybody nails nails straight...). If you are trying to pull it the opposite way you'll make your life a lot harder and risk splintering the wood. So try it from different angles, this way you'll gently loosen it and find the correct direction in which you should pull it out.

Once you get in a rhythm de-nailing becomes fairly easy. Added bonus of the "increased handle-height hitting" technique is that you don't have to vary how hard you swing the hammer, physics does that for you.

So after a morning of de-nailing I am left with this pile of 2x4s ready to use (once they are dry again).