Old framer showed me a nail pulling trick I still use 5 years later

I was working a deck job in Portland back in 2019 and this older guy named Hank walked over while I was fighting a bent nail. He just laughed and grabbed my hammer, then flipped it around and used the back claw at a sideways angle to pop it out in one go without marring the board. I had been yanking straight down for years like a dummy and ruining the wood every time. That one interaction saved me so much time on trim work since then. Anybody else pick up a weird trick from a random guy on site?

3 comments

3 Comments

robin_campbell361mo ago

Man, that's the kind of stuff they never teach you in any manual.

paul2331mo ago

Right, because who needs real-world survival skills when you've got a perfectly organized binder of theory, right?

rose_young1mo ago

Never taught in any manual" - yeah, that line hits hard. Real learning happens when you're knee deep in mud, not sitting in a classroom. Manuals give you the nice clean version of things, the one where the zipper doesn't break or the firewood isn't wet.