Tips for Processing Reclaimed Wood

Yoav Lieberman gives a great overview of how to work with reclaimed wood for your next project. Learn ways to find dangerous nails and screws, and how to remove them without damaging the wood itself. For everything woodworking visit www.popularwoodworking.com

[@COLDB33R]

I've found that a pair of plumber's slip-joint pliers are one of the best tools to extract nails. The ends get a good grip on the nail, even if the head is missing, and the diminishing-radius curvature of the back of the pliers gives you an excellent fulcrum that gives you a LOT of mechanical advantage.

[@doowael]

Good stuff, Yoav. Thanks!!

[@k.b.woodworker3250]

Thanks for the tip on getting out embedded nails using a hole saw. I have some nice oak boards with quite a few countersunk nails that are sheared off on the back of the board. I will try this, but with a 1/4" diameter diamond hole cutter. The hole itself is only 1/4", so easily plugged with 1/4" dowels if need be. I've found a small cat's paw to work best. This tip should speed things up. I've been using a countersink on the underside to pop up the nail head, but this may speed things up. These old boards are so much better than what you can buy new. Well worth the time.

[@StuffUCanMake]

Thanks Yoav, Great video!

[@YoavSamuelLiberman]

Thanks!

[@billfromelma]

Hey Yoav, this is great info to have. Best of luck with your book.

[@YoavSamuelLiberman]

Thanks so much.

[@BobutBrody]

Really good video - I will look out for the book

[@ReclaimDesign]

Some good tips there Yoav. I make use of a stud finder/metal detector to make 100% sure I haven't missed any bits of broken off nails/screws/staples. Much cheaper to buy one of those than decent saw blades and thicknesser/planer blades.

[@TheWoodYogi]

Great timing, I put a video on my channel covering the metal detector. Thank you Yoav, for bringing this information to the attention of more woodworkers. It is really valuable and helps to save catch yourself on the metal or damaging tools. I love the detail for removing metal using various tools :)

[@canman1960]

The Wood Yogi This guy is nuts

[@YoavSamuelLiberman]

Thanks for your kind words. Metal detectors are paramount in any wood reclamation processes and the wider the detector - the easiest and quickest it is to find nails and other clandestine pieces of hardware

[@ArgyPaktitis]

Very good thanks. For the nail under the surface I drill three small hole s around the nail , but I never thought iof using hole saw . Thanks better idea I will try it!!

[@JessTheInvestor]

Great video. I feel confident now to repurpose my from a 1900s home

[@21thTek]

Excelent , very detailed video, !

[@arymonem]

Great video.

[@eduardofreitas5562]

great video

[@dwarfsbaneironfist2527]

My tip. Never put reclaimed wood through a jointer or thicknesser that is dirty, been on the floor etc. Old wood, pallet wood, reclaimed wood, probably has pieces of grit embedded into the wood grain, it will chip and blunt your jointer thicknesser blades. Have an old plane to quickly take off the surface after you have remove any metal, takes a minute to roughly plane, a lot quicker than sharpening your machine blades.

[@dwarfsbaneironfist2527]

Another reason to do the above, once saw a guy saw some large pieces of wood on the table-saw that destroyed the blade teeth. He had used a metal detector to check for metal, he did not use a plane to clean the wood. The wood was about 8 inches thick, looked like one piece, it was two old oak fence posts that had been laminated together at some point, it had the remains of two bolts in the middle of the wood, the detector did not find them since they were four inches of oak between the bolt and the surface. If he had planed the surface the wood plugs that were used to fill the bolt holes were visible, he would have know that he needed to find out why they were there.

[@Shroommduke]

true dat!

[@roberttill3787]

my tip is lean the recovered wood against a wall, and blast it well with a pressure washer then allow to dry, then you have clean wood, no dirt in the surface.

[@JohnyKnox]

Thicknesser? You mean a planer?

[@dwarfsbaneironfist2527]

@@JohnyKnox yes. Doesn't matter what machine you are using. Planer or jointer, thicknesser, table saw. Unless you want to risk damaged blades. I would never used dirty reclaimed wood without a quick going over with an old hand plane. Blades are expensive and a pain to sharpen.

[@bwhite661]

Excellent tips. I am struggling with some embedded nails with no heads, so I will give the hole saw (that I just happened to buy by coincidence - or maybe Divine intervention!) a shot.

[@DRJMF1]

How do we ensure that reclaimed wood does not get infested by woodboring insects ? I know it’s important to ensure wood does not get wet, but which chemical preservative or paint is recommended for preserving structural roofing timbers ? Nice ideas in your video, thanks for sharing.

[@michaelpearce9322]

Most of the palet wood I deal with Uses long staples do you have a technique for this

[@k.b.woodworker3250]

A small cat's paw. Much better than a pry bar.

[@jasonbutts6085]

I have some Dade county hard time that is turned rich two-by-foursI've got some of this stuff and I'd like to get rid of itvery let me know if you would like it or if you would how much it's worth but I know you can't buy it anymore and it's non-existent but I have some

[@carbonitegamorrean8368]

what-about fine staples and 23g or 20ga brads that just seem to break.????

[@mdevidograndpacificlumbera1539]

Carbonite Gamorrean I'm not him, but maybe this will help; usually I just takeoff what is visible and if the remaining breaks off in the wood I leave it. If I hit it with the saw blade I'm not too concerned, the carbide teeth on a saw blade will make quick work of soft staple metal . if you have to hit it with a jointer, then use a nail set to push it through and extract it with pincers from the other side... Works for me!

[@carbonitegamorrean8368]

Thank you, but right now I'm using hand tools, and this is in some really hard wood i'm trying to salvage to make stuff from. And then I have two small pieces of oak with 18ga brads all over the place like a child when nuts on it. The first is a bench, the second = oak I my have to just work around it,

[@byhammerandhand]

on nail #3, why not 1) try punching it through with a nail set? 2) If that doesn't work, use your hole saw on the back side, not the face side.

[@bbirdsill]

Exactly. As I watched I was thinking why not use a nail set and (like you said) drive it on through, or turn the board over and use a nail set to back it out so it could be pulled.

[@YoavSamuelLiberman]

This a great tip Keith. The reason I showed the drilling technique from the face side (in this video) is because it is the most common and practical approach when dealing with timber and beams. There, the option of extracting from the back side is not possible. In my upcoming book: Working Reclaimed Wood (www.amazon.com/Working-Reclaimed-Wood-Woodworkers-Makers/dp/1440350817) I shoe the cup-saw technique on a reclaimed beam.

[@TheNajSD]

I have my own personal MRI machine. i just line up the boards and all the nails get sucked out.

[@fredfalgiano7481]

You're writing an entire book about this?

[@YoavSamuelLiberman]

Not at all.. it is about the whole spectrum of reclaimed wood: How to find/buy it, how to initiate it, design with it and build project. In the book I feature many artisans and artist (including myself) and include a bundle of information and anecdote on the amazing world of reclaimed wood. www.amazon.com/Working-Reclaimed-Wood-Woodworkers-Makers/dp/1440350817

[@MrFlyingPanda]

Just hammer it from the other side with a pin driver...

[@Fnberg744]

He said "suppose you are trying to remove a nail from a board that you do not have access to the back". Pay attention

[@thrinfo]

I got a dam good metal detector, my planer and jointer, they never miss one, LOL, but I've got the Wizard II and it stink, catch quite often nails and screws and wasn't deep in the wood, get very frustrated, but thanks for those who didn't know how to detect them.

[@mdevidograndpacificlumbera1539]

Normand Therrien that's good to know, thanks for the info... They need to have a better metal detector on the market.

[@varun009]

Preybar

[@bigscreenbird8198]

4:57. That’s what she said

[@alfredneumann4692]

Save our wood :-)

[@misterhat5823]

That metal detector didn't seem all that reliable.

[@cooch3448]

I bet a magnet would work pretty good, especially the ones that sometimes come with a flat screen TV mounting kit.

[@jakew37]

We use magnets as a stud finder for steel studs all the time

[@cooch3448]

Exactly. Magnets also work really well on wood studs by finding the drywall screws that get screwed into them.

[@YoavSamuelLiberman]

This the metal detector that I have been using for almost 20 years. It is a British tool and I don't know if it still in production today. By the way, it never failed me. If I were to buy a new tool, I would have looked for a detector with wider scaring ability than the one I have in order to expedite scanning.

[@cloudstrifeification]

I have and old speaker magnet that works good as well and it also has an extra benefit of magnetizing all your screw drivers as well!

[@MattJonesYT]

This would be a lot easier to watch with fewer ahs and ums

[@johnbhumphrey]

Really?

[@BrianJohnson-fe7su]

I cringe whenever I see someone drilling metal without safety glasses!

[@YoavSamuelLiberman]

I understand and agree that drilling metal should be done with safety glasses. In this case I did not wear them because I wear reading glasses that are made from polycarbonate.

[@patriotenterprises9305]

This is 10x slower than necessary. You must have too much time on your hands, and charge too much for the work to make profit. You can do all of that extraction with an air compressor and 1 tool with less dmg, and process dozens of boards/hour. But good luck with your book

[@josephbarron1186]

Brand new hammer huh prolly not the best