Removing old nails

Tester46

I am trying to remove some old sunken flathead nails from an old mahogany wardrobe. They've been there for 100 years. As they are at the back of the wardrobe, I can afford to damage the wood slightly.

I have tried digging in around the sunken nail head to get a grip on it to remove with (a) claw hammer (b) nail remover (mini crow bar) (c) pliers, but I can't get a good grip on the nail head and I can't get the nail to move at all. If I could raise it a couple of millimetres, I could get below it and remove with a claw hammer.

Any ideas?

Alun

Are the nails actually holding something onto the back of the wardrobe? If so you could try levering between the wardrobe itself and whatever the nails are attaching to it (with a screwdriver, or maybe a chisel) until you've created a gap of a mm or so, and then push it back . Hopefully the nail will stay put in the wardrobe itself and the head will pop out above whatever it is holding on. Did that make any sense at all?

Tester46

Alun wrote: »

Are the nails actually holding something onto the back of the wardrobe? If so you could try levering between the wardrobe itself and whatever the nails are attaching to it (with a screwdriver, or maybe a chisel) until you've created a gap of a mm or so, and then push it back . Hopefully the nail will stay put in the wardrobe itself and the head will pop out above whatever it is holding on. Did that make any sense at all?

Yup, that made sense alright. The nails are holding the back panelif the wardrobe onto the frame. I tried levering with a large screwdriver as you suggested, but the wood just splits. I'm afraid if I keep levering it, I'll destroy the wardrobe with one big split!!!

Alun

Yeah, you'd want to be careful not to pry too hard else like you said, the panel would split.

Sounds like the nails are probably a bit corroded (I guess they would be after 100 years!) and that's what's holding them in so well. I was going to suggest maybe placing a block of wood inside the wardrobe in the back corner, near to where one of the nails is and knocking gently with a hammer against the back panel, but I think if they're that well stuck then the same thing might happen.

Why do you want to remove them by the way?

jack of all

Try using a decent pincers (Channel-lock are very good) to get a grip on the head/ shank of the nail. Sometimes it may be easier and cleaner to punch the nail through with a nail set first and then use a pincers to withdraw the protruding nail (depends on nail location obviously and may not suit your set up. Alternatively if you just wish to remove the paneloand are not interested in recovering the nail, punch the nail right through the panel altogether. Am I making sense?

Tester46

Thanks for the replies. I like the idea of the pincer, but the problem is I can't get the pincer under the nail head which is slightly below the wood surface level.

Also because they are flathead nails i.e. they have a big nail head compared to the shaft, I can't just hammer them through the wooden back panel.

Are there any other ways to go about this, or should I bite the bullet and try to drill them out?

Alun

Tester46 wrote: »

Are there any other ways to go about this, or should I bite the bullet and try to drill them out?

I'm a bit confused as to what it is you're trying to do, exactly. You say you want to remove the nails, but is this just to remove the rear panel? I can't imagine why you'd want to do this, unless the panel was broken already and you wanted to replace it, so why would it be a problem if it got wrecked in the process?

Tester46

Alun wrote: »

I'm a bit confused as to what it is you're trying to do, exactly. You say you want to remove the nails, but is this just to remove the rear panel? I can't imagine why you'd want to do this, unless the panel was broken already and you wanted to replace it, so why would it be a problem if it got wrecked in the process?

I need to dismantle the wardrobe to get it upstairs. A cabinetmaker saw it and said it should come apart easily and could be just as easily reassembled upstairs (he said a lot of those old Edwardian mahogany wardrobes were actually assembled in the house which is why sometimes they don't fit the stairs). He was more or less right, apart from these feckin nails.

Any other suggestions gratefully received.

Alun

Ah, OK, I get you now! In which case I'd drill the little feckers out You might be able to get away with just drilling away the heads with a large-ish drill or maybe grinding them away with a Dremel tool, pull the back panel off and remove the remaining bit of nail with a pair of pincers.