Greetings!

Love reading all your tales (except injuries), and you continue to feed my brain
with interesting tidbits and knowledge and theories and new slopes down which to
be pushed. I’m not very active here as of late. Family does take a great chunk
of time….and it’s so worth it.

As many of you know, in January 2022, I encountered a lady who was selling a few
Lie Nielsen planes on Facebook.

Turns out she lives right here in Springfield, MO.

So I did what any galoot would do and I arranged to meet her, “just to see what
else she might be selling”. A familiar tale.

Since then I’ve been helping her sell the entire house (and entire farm
outbuildings) contents of one Grade A tool hoarder, and I mean that in the best
of ways. Bedrocks o plenty, machinist chests full of goodies, rare stuff, common
stuff. The man was active in the MWTCA for quite a while, after a good career
working the DEW line in northern Canada. Lots of tools, and I’m thankful for it.

One DOWNside is that because I’m essentially a seller’s agent, I’m kinda trying
to get the best prices for the family, which means few are the deals I can offer
to friends, which isn’t really how I like to work. That’s why I haven’t been
selling here, cause I really am very consistently asking way way high prices,
and I guess enough folks have been agreeing to them.

I tell the lady all the time, “I would never in a million years pay these high
prices for these tools”. And it’s true, partly because I’m sane, and partly
because I bleed bottom-feeder blood.

She’s happy that there are people in the world who DO pay them.

I’m happy that my tool knowledge is being useful. Or at least useful to her.

I do get a cut, so of course it’s helpful to me as well.

One UPside is that I’m by far her most frequent customer. If I see a tool I
want, I get to be first in line.

So.

The nail pullers.

The deceased had a small cadre of sliding nail pullers, and I currently have
none.

I might as well pick a good one to buy, and that’s where yall come in.

If it were sawsets, I’d march right over and buy the 42X or the Eclipse 77
(narrow hammer version), but with these cats, I have no experience at all.

One might very reasonably ask, “But what kind of nails do you wish to pull”, or
“Do you EVEN NEED a sliding nail puller?

Hopefully such questions, at least as it pertains to obtaining the best nail
puller, make as little sense to you as they do to me.

We are galoots, after all.

What say ye? What’s the 42X of sliding nail pullers??

Matthew Groves
Springfield, MO

I dunno, how do you rate these things?  Which one creates the biggest blood
blister? Which one damages the surface the most?

I have a Giant I think, and it's adequate, but only gets out when I can
ruin what I'm working on.

There are some that have a little side foot to give you more leverage than
just using the jaws.

That's all I've got, I'm just a common sewer on this topic.

Kirk Eppler in Half moon Bay, watching Mr Groves' good stuff from a bottom
feeding distance.


On Sat, Aug 6, 2022, 2:37 PM Matthew Groves  wrote:

>
>
> The nail pullers.
>
> The deceased had a small cadre of sliding nail pullers, and I currently
> have none.
>
> I might as well pick a good one to buy, and that’s where yall come in.
>
> If it were sawsets, I’d march right over and buy the 42X or the Eclipse 77
> (narrow hammer version), but with these cats, I have no experience at all.
>
> One might very reasonably ask, “But what kind of nails do you wish to
> pull”, or “Do you EVEN NEED a sliding nail puller?
>
> Hopefully such questions, at least as it pertains to obtaining the best
> nail puller, make as little sense to you as they do to me.
>
> We are galoots, after all.
>
> What say ye? What’s the 42X of sliding nail pullers??
>
>


-- 
Kirk Eppler in Half Moon Bay, CA 

Crescent makes one. If it’s Made in USA Crescent, it’s probably a good tool. I
have a Crescent USA adjustable wrench that is top quality and less than half the
price of a comparable Knipex. But honestly, this is my first exposure to this
interesting tool.

Stephen

I have had a number of traditional nail pullers.
  After all when I started there were no cat's paws available.
   As long as they are whole and no cracks or chips, all of the nail 
pullers I have used will do the job.
  The last one I got I picked up off the ground in the "metal pile" in 
the town dump. Its a Crescent I think. Maybe a Bridgeport, I forget.

   It -doesn't- have the extra wide jaw, which I find desirable. The 
extra wide jar, or foot, is an extension to help you lever out long 
nails. But it only is helpful occasionally, but its there taking up 
space you may need, all the time

In use for me, I want to pop the head of the nail well above the 
surface. But the pulling is done with a classic wrecking bar.
None of the nail pullers generates the fast sure leverage of a good 
crowbar.
   Their job is the near instant "pop" of raising the head up (they do 
this part fantastic when you get accustomed).

The --important-- bit is how you paint them.
  Nail pullers are the champion blood blister raisers of all time. Huge 
painful blisters you have to stab and drain, ugh

   So do this. A little masking tape and a few minutes is all it takes.

  http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/oldtools/nailpuller1c.JPG

http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/oldtools
/nailpuller2.JPG

Never ever put your hand in the red zone.
Not even for a minute. Not even if you are sure you can handle it.
  There is no friction at all in the sliding part,
and its gonna move.
Never trust it.
   yours scott

-- 
*******************************
    Scott Grandstaff
    Box 409 Happy Camp, Ca  96039
    scottg@s...
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/
    http://www.snowcrest.net/kitty/hpages/index.html

I pretty much agree with all that has been said so far. Those big heavy 
slide hammer pullers do the job but sure ain't elegant. Most of the ones 
I see in garage sales are bent. I suppose that's because folks finally 
realize that as a nail puller they make great pry bars. There is one 
exception. Millers Falls made a pocket nail puller that look like all 
the rest but cut off all but the business end. They cast a flat and a 
little protrusion on it so instead of the slide hammer you used a claw 
hammer to knock the teeth into the wood and then use the claw to lever 
the tool and then bada bing you already have your claw hammer in your 
dominant hand ready to pull the nail the rest of the way.

I'm away from home (attending my grandson's baptism BTW) so I can't grab 
mine to take a photo or get the number off of it. I know exactly where I 
keep though - It's in the pouch of my tool belt. The thing is that handy.

Mathew, if your nice widow friend has any of those I will gladly 
purchase all she has at her asking price and buy her dinner.

-JP in muggy Columbus, Ohio enjoy some quality family time

I have two.  One is a Crescent-Bridgeport like my grandfather's.  The
other is a Smith & Heneway, somewhat bigger.  Both work extremely well, 

Mike in Woodland

Ok, I just remembered. It's not Millers Falls. It's the Goodell Pratt 
634 i'm talking about here.

https://mega.nz/file/gJt3iZ6Y#wgNODltZijl1I_JcMLfze6AbkSBzg26ijHri1ZVbWjY

-JP

All of these replies are the kind of gold I was digging for. 

Thanks!

Picked up another 700ish pounds of tools to sell. No longer tubs of bedrocks,
but still some good stuff.

Matthew Groves
Springfield, MO

I have about 20 different ones

Really cool. But I don't think a regular old carpenter's cats pae does
much more damage than these would. Ya gotta get the nail proud of the
surface one way or another. Hmmm, maybe the world's strongest magnet?

Phil E.

My dad had one when I was a kid. He built two houses that we lived in, in
his "spare time". Don't know how he did it. I don't remember his brand, but
perhaps this will be of some use: A review of the vintage Greenlee No. 515
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH0o2NAivw0

There's also a Restoration video for a Bridgeport No. 20
https://youtu.be/ZmoJMKtSMro

And another on a Bahco 38:
https://youtu.be/mjh0vN0Qccg

Darren Addy
Kearney, NE

On Sun, Aug 7, 2022 at 9:50 PM Matthew Groves 
wrote: