A job in Eugene taught me the hard way about checking old growth for hidden nails

I was tearing out a wall in a house built in 1928 last Tuesday, and I was moving fast. My Sawzall blade hit something hard in a stud that looked clean. It was a square cut nail, buried deep and rusted over, and it snapped the blade right off. The kickback was nasty and I almost dropped the tool. That one hidden nail cost me a new pack of blades, about fifteen bucks, and set me back an hour while I fished the broken piece out. Now I'm running a strong magnet over every inch of old wood before I make a cut, no matter how clean it looks. Anyone else have a good trick for finding these old hidden fasteners before they find your tools?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamieburns6d ago

Oh man, that "strong magnet" trick is a lifesaver. It reminds me of my buddy who does reclaimed wood projects. He found a whole bundle of old horse shoe nails, totally buried and rusted into a beam, just by slowly dragging a magnet along it. Said it felt like finding a secret prize, but the kind that could ruin your planer blade in a second. He swears by those rare earth magnets now, the little super strong ones.

the_gray5d ago

I used to think a regular hardware store magnet was fine until I found a hidden nail in an old door frame. That one missed nail cost me a new router bit. Now I keep a couple of those tiny neodymium magnets in my apron pocket, they grab stuff through half an inch of wood.

dylan2655d ago

Yeah, those little magnets are no joke. I learned the hard way like @the_gray, but my mistake was with a table saw blade. Felt pretty dumb that day.