A review by the great guys at Tool Snob

We consider nail pulling to be one of the deepest hells of construction, and that's why we're pretty interested when a new tool comes along that might make the process a little easier. Enter the Nail Jack and the Nail Hunter, both from Nail Jack Tools. Can these funky looking pliers give a little relief in the nail removal department? We tested them pretty extensively in order to find out.

The two tools are identical except for size, so while we used them both out quite a bit, for the purpose of the review, we're just going to clump them together under the term "Nail Jack." In reality, the Nail Jack is the larger of the two, measuring 11" while the Nail Hunter is 8-1/2".

As far as looks go, it's a hybrid between a set of end cutting pliers, and a cat's paw. But there are a number of smart design choices that make this tool particularly useful. First off, the handle is offset from the business end of the tool. This, combined with the rounded heel of the pliers, makes for a very easy prying motion once a nail is clamped in the jaws. The inside of the jaws are also concave so you can easily catch the head of a nail. In addition, the tips of the pliers come to a sharp point and the rear of the head is made to take a hammer hit so you can dig the pointed end around a flush nailhead.

Nail pulling usually requires a different tool for whatever circumstance you're facing. If you're pulling finish nails out of the back of a piece of casing, you'll grab the end-cutting pliers; if you're taking apart some framing, you might opt for the old-fashioned cat's paw; but if you're removing clapboards, you might reach for the old-old fashioned nail pullers with the sliding shaft (they work great by the way, if you were wondering). From what we can tell, the Nail Jack is the only nail pulling tool that is successful in all of these situations and more actually.

We did a massive de-nailing of the garage and the Nail Jack worked great across the board. The tip of the tool is precise enough not to mar a finished surface too badly and it was also rugged enough to handle gun-fired framing nails. And we haven't even mentioned staples yet. This tool is a very, very good at removing staples. We took up a rug and had to deal with the stapled down pad and this tool paid its way with just that one project.

But there are some drawbacks to consider. First, the handle is a little awkward. Particularly after repetitive use, we found that we would end up hunched over the thing working some heavy carpal-tunnel action. It's sort of funny that the handle offset, which is one of the great things about the tool, is also one of the things that didn't work for us. Along the same lines, the handles are spring loaded, which is great when we were working the field of carpet staples, but it prohibited us from putting the Nail Jack in our tool belt.

Overall, though, we have to say that the Nail Jack is probably the most successful multi-purpose nail puller that we've used. So there's not only the feel-good storyof Nail Jack buying the Irwin factory, but the tools actually work too.

We think that most people could get by with the smaller of the two models, the Nail Hunter, but if you think you're going to be using it on framing a lot, you might want to consider the 11" Nail Jack.

The Nail Hunter goes for about $25 and the larger Nail Jack costs around $30. It's pricey for sure, but we think it's well worth it.

8.5" Nail Hunter at Amazon
11" Nail Jack at Amazon

Read More in: All Reviews | Demolition Tools | Hand Tools

A recent posting by the very special Reuse group, Buffalo Reuse

You Go Back…Jack…Do it Again

by Ian MacDonald :: March 8, 2009 at 11:07 pm :: Deconstruction, How-To, Salvage, Store, Tool BARn

Recently the ReUse was contacted by Nail Jack Tools LLC to alert woodworkers, especially reclaimed wood workers, about their new nail pulling tools, the “Nail Hunter” and “Nail Jack”. Nail Jack Tools very kindly sent us a set of these tools to evaluate and since the weather was pleasant yesterday I decided to take the Nail Jack out into the yard to de-nail a pile of lumber from a recent deconstruction job.

Image Courtesy of Nail Jack Tools LLC

The Nail Jack and the Nail Hunter are functionally identical tools, except that the Nail Jack is Larger. Since building deconstruction literally produces tons of lumber studded with nails ranging from 10 inch long spikes to carpet tacks, I decided to use the larger Nail Jack, figuring that it could pull the largest nails but could probably extract any smaller nails as well.

The pile of lumber I de-nailed is a daunting opponent for any nail pulling tool as it consists of a

stack of, mostly 8×8 oak timbers recovered from a 100-year old barn. Typical to old barns, overly large nails were used in its construction, many 8 gauge or larger. Additionally many of the beams bristled with an assortment of smaller nails, cut nails, tacks, and staples used for cross beams, wiring, siding etc… Many of the smaller nails were heavily rusted, bent and embedded into the wood.

Before detailing my reasons I’ll get right to the ending – I think the Nail Jack is a really great and useful tool. It is innovative, seems well built, hardy, and very reasonably priced for contractors and do-it-yourselfers, at about $25 a tool (nippers, $15-$40 depending on quality).

An initial reaction by my colleagues was a “So what, it’s a glorified pair of wire cutters or nippers”. But it isn’t, and only after you start using it does its thoughtful design and utility become apparent.

First, there are the two sets of jaws, beaked jaws in the front and the grooved jaws in the rear that can grab onto nails at any point along the shaft. The narrow internal width of the beaked jaws allows the user to clinch the nail with significant force. Thus the nails do not need an intact head to extract them, just a small exposed piece to affix the jaws onto. The rear jaws are wider and primarily grasp exposed nails, especially large ones, between a set of three teeth so that substantial pulling force can be generated. What sets the Nail Jack apart from a pair of nail nippers is the banana shaped head that allows the user to leverage nails from almost any angle; backward, rolling side to side, or pushing forward when the rear jaws are used. The rear jaws also double a strike plate to hit with a hammer to bring extra force to the nail. I must confess I didnot need this as its pulling ability was more than sufficient for the nails I encountered.

The tool’s features clearly sped the work because I could quickly re-adjust the tool back to the starting position to keep maximum force on the nail without having to use wood blocks to increase leverage or switch to tools for different nails or difficult situations. I should also mention that I alternatively used the nail jack with one or two hands and pulled or pushed depending on the situation.

An additional advantage I noticed while de-nailing timbers (as opposed to narrower boards) is that the range of motion of pulling is so wide that I could pull nails relatively easily on the top and sides of the timbers. This necessitated less moving or rolling of the lumber over, making the job easier and faster.

Since you can grip the nail at any place along its length and quickly re-adjust the tool back to where it has maximum leverage, each extraction consists of a sequence of small pulls rather than one long pull. Thus the tool spends more time flat against the wood, spreading the pulling force more widely and causing less damage to the wood. I generally noticed that even gnarly and crooked nails left with holes not much larger than the width of the nail.

In the approximately two hours I spent pulling a few pounds of nails with the Nail Jack I only resorted twice to using a pry bar and the nippers. I required the leverage of the nippers to pull a particularly long (~8 inches, upper right corner of photo) and crooked nail. To be fair this nail barely fit in the jaws.

The one downside I encountered with the Nail Jack is that there is a spring that pops the tool open as the default state. This spring, located in the rear jaws seems somewhat vulnerable to damage. In fact the spring in our tool developed a kink (last photo) after I used the rear jaws to push out an 8 gauge nail. I believethe force of the nail head pressed against the spring damaged it (it got the nail out though).Despite the kink the spring is still functioning but I believe it will succumb to metal fatigue relatively soon. We have contacted Nail JackTools and it appears that the spring can be easily replaced or used without it. I personally liked the spring loaded action as it readied the tool quickly for the next pull.

So in conclusion I highly recommend the Nail Jack. I believe that home renovators or re-used material carpenters will find this tool very useful. I also believe that the spring may not be a big issue for lighter duty jobs. The Buffalo ReUse is particularly hard on tools and, all in all, I thought this tool did an excellent job and fared well under tough conditions.