Old nail removal

Have 3-4 cubic M of old house framing - just about all full of nails -all is old -30s -60s Hardwood. what is the easiest way to pull nails? Have gone claw hammer -belted by another hammer or mallet -slow about 12 or more blows per nail. Also get the heavily rusted nails that will never come out as well & the 4" + nails that are best cut off and forgotten about.
Wondering about peoples experiences and methods.
Have seen footage of pneumatic pullers that kind of bite into the timber - grab and pull in one quick hit. Question with these is how much and how well do they ACTUALLY work.
Another pneumatic thing is the punch (for thinner things) that involves grinding off the end of the nail and then punching backwards. Again how much /effective. Though could see this also being useful for the badly rusted ones -to get them away from the planer blades. (yes my blades are often damaged - oops missed that one.)
Other thoughts are -length of pipe over hammer handle for leverage?
Any thoughts or suggestions - most welcome.

THIS slide hammer type. You put the “teeth” as close to the nail head as you can then wallop the slide hammer up and down until it has punched its way below the level of the nail head; then simply lever it out. If this doesn’t shift it it nothing else will.

Got one of those but unfortunatly it isn't as good as expected. Pulling rusty 3" nails out of old hardwood will often just rip the head off as the nails grip on the timber is greater that the strength of the nail. You need to break the grip on the timber.

Bought a pneumatic nail extractor and with, at most, two shots the nails grip on the timber is loosened and it is punched out and sticking up easy to remove.

Most nails in thinner timber are shot out with no effort to remove them. Bent over nails are also easy to straighten with the gun's tube before extraction.

Video

You should definitely invest in a metal detector. It will save you money, especially dealing with 3-4 cubic meters of heavily nailed timber!

The pneumatic nail extractor is awesome. The link that Bohdan gave is to Amazon US and they do not ship that product to AU, but there are at least three options from Amazon AU. Just google air nail remover and you will find lots of options from $63 (on eBay) and up.

Hi WS. I have had plenty of success with this

The Nail Extractor

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Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Hi WS. I have had plenty of success with this

The Nail Extractor

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Definitely agree. Have one of those as well and use it all the time. Great for pulling nails in the corner where a claw hammer can't get in or for pulling staples.

In thick stock I usually chisel down 5-10 mm either side of the nail. This gives you more of the nail to work with. I usually then pull the nail out with end cutting pliers by levering on the rounded side of the jaws. You lose some thickness this way but you always get the nail out.