traditional ropes

There are some techniques shown on the web - you knock out the middle blocks and then tidy up the rest. I have done this for a few pallets with a small sledgehammer + bolster chisel, and a 'wrecking bar'. Works OK.

For large quantities there is a tool called a 'pallet buster' - again, easily searched for. You can buy these although welding one up yourself would be in the right spirit...

FiL, whose father in turn was a decorator, had a handed down tool for extracting nails from door frames (not quite sure why).

I have one for fencing work. Ideal for staples. Mine has a built in slide hammer.

Pallet nails tend to be ring shank:-(

There's a thought. We have one of these in the garden:

But they have to stop rigging falling on visitors heads, so I Imagine they would use the correct stuff. It's probably a grade 1 listed structure anyway,now it is permanently landlocked.

Stanley do a very good one for about £15. Great for removing chipboard nails without leaving a massive crater in the board.

A really handy bit of kit! I have one myself, but the annular ring nails in pallets are really hard to withdraw even so, which is why I took to cutting them.

My Dad had a nail tool of similar design but with a sliding weight to 'hammer'it in with. He had it for opening packing cases and said it was essential kit when in the Forces moving from Married Quarter to Married Quarter with all your belongings nailed up in tea chests each time.

TW

Ta!

A "nail kicker" looks handy if you pull lots of them apart