Some ideas on removal that have worked for me from time to time - but much depends on how fine a job you need, and the state of the nails. If they are really well rusted you get the worst combination of the rust sticking firmly to the wood but the nails being too weak to pull out.
- Use a pair of wire cutters (side cutters) rather than a pair of pincers - the finer point can get in close and get hold of a little fragment of nail. Protect the wood surface with a thin piece of steel as you lever up. Don't snip the nail!
- Use a chisel to split off a fairly chunky sliver of wood from around the nail, exposing enough to get hold of. Then you can glue the chunk back on with a dab of superglue. A big piece won't distort or get lost so easily. A bit like 'secret nailing' in reverse.
(Secret nailing is when you chisel up a sliver, nail underneath it, then glue it down again, like this:
)
- Use a hollow drill (such as an old fashioned shell/gouge bit - see
this thread) to drill a neat hole around the nail, which you can then plug with a scrap of matching wood whittled to a point.
