What is this?

glatt · 06-02-2014, 07:33 AM

Zippy gets it.

It's a nail puller. I'm still trying to get it all cleaned up so it works well. I wonder if it worked well when it was new? I've never seen one like this before or even seen a reference to one.

The sliding handle is a hammer that drives the beak down into the wood around the nail head. Then as you pull back on the lever, there's some complex mechanical action going on that multiplies the grabbing power of the beak holding on to the nail head as you pull it out.

Only problem is 120 years of rust have made it a little sticky in operation. The ramming handle gets hung up on the shaft sometimes. I'm making progress though. Nothing moved at all when I started cleaning it up, but now everything that is supposed to move does move. PB Blaster is a good thing. I saw it at a roadside stand yesterday and it called to me.

06-02-2014, 07:33 AM	#10
glatt ™ Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 27,717	Zippy gets it. It's a nail puller. I'm still trying to get it all cleaned up so it works well. I wonder if it worked well when it was new? I've never seen one like this before or even seen a reference to one. The sliding handle is a hammer that drives the beak down into the wood around the nail head. Then as you pull back on the lever, there's some complex mechanical action going on that multiplies the grabbing power of the beak holding on to the nail head as you pull it out. Only problem is 120 years of rust have made it a little sticky in operation. The ramming handle gets hung up on the shaft sometimes. I'm making progress though. Nothing moved at all when I started cleaning it up, but now everything that is supposed to move does move. PB Blaster is a good thing. I saw it at a roadside stand yesterday and it called to me.

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