Removing putty from windows is almost never a fun task — you run the risk of breaking the window if you push the wrong way, and you can scorch the wood if you try applying heat.  I usually end up just using a putty knife and hoping for the best, but this Prazi Putty Chaser looks like it could take a lot of the work out of the job.

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A little while back Bosch announced the rollout of their new “Edge” metal recip demo blades.  Bosch’s marketing department created a lot of fanfare around the release and did a good job trying to make ‘em exciting, which is difficult — because it’s a recip blade, not the sexy front runner in a hard-hitting leaflet campaign.  Here’s what it boils down to:  Bosch says that, thanks to its new tooth design and many other features, the Edge cuts faster and lasts longer.

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Although it looks very much like their brick set, this floor chisel from Stanley has an entirely different purpose. You use a floor chisel, sometimes called an electrician’s bolster, to remove flooring.  The long narrow blade is designed to get between floorboards, cut through tongues, and pry up the loosened boards.

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Milwaukee put out one of the coolest tools we’ve seen in 2008, the M12 Hackzall — even in the list of our favorites, this is the spoiled youngest child of the bunch. Ever since the fateful day we had to cut apart my power steering pump with one, it has claimed a place of honor in the shop.

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Tool King is selling this factory-reconditioned Makita 8.3A, 3/4″ hex demolition hammer for only $200.  It weighs 11 pounds, bashes away at 2,900 BPM, and comes with a case — not a bad tool if you’re starting on a demo job.

A demolition hammer will treat your body a lot better than a sledgehammer will, and it’s quicker, too.  Of course, reconditioned tools can be iffy, but they usually hold up as well as new ones.  Check the warranty details first, though.

Reconditioned Makita Demolition Hammer [Tool King]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Specialty tools are endless — pick some job that you know someone somewhere is going to have to do, and there’s a tool for it. If you need to remove institutional-grade glued-down carpet in the middle of the day at a school, or in the middle of the night in a maternity ward, you’ll probably want this quiet, glued-down-carpet puller.

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If you can’t quite justify buying the contortionist or the masseuse of reciprocating saws, because you already own a more mundane model, you can at least make your life a little easier by adding a double-sided blade with a plunge tip. Though the demonstration video isn’t much to look at, it does demonstrate how easily this blade’ll start a cut, even in the middle of a sheet.

New blades may not give you the same “new tool” fix, but at $19 for a three-pack of the 10″ blades — and less for the smaller blades — it won’t break the bank either.

Boar Blades [Corporate Site]

In the comments section of a recent post someone asked for advice on removing a broken screw at the bottom of his pool. Though the simplest answer seemed to be a hand-cranked drill brace with a left-hand drill bit, other readers suggested a pneumatic drill or a cordless electric drill. This piqued my curiosity about the underwater tool industry, which I knew little about — so I went looking to discover what’s out there.

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Get a grip on your carpet! Pulling out old carpet is usually hard on the hands, but a carpet puller gives you a comfortable and powerful grip, so you can rip out more carpet with less hand fatigue.

While many specialty tools are so specific and expensive that renting is the best approach for the non-professional, this one is so inexpensive, you might as well have it on hand for when you need it.  Available for as little as $20, you’ll stretch your budget without straining your hands.

Shop Fox Carpet Puller [Woodstock International]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]

If you’re in the market for Gerber’s Deluxe Mine Probe Kit, one of two things is probably true: A) You’re underpaid, or B) you need to move. People who remove unexploded ordnance work mostly on their bellies, inching across the battlefield, constantly in danger. For these serious people and their serious work, Gerber makes some precision mine probe tools to replace that old KA-BAR.

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When firemen or other rescue personnel need to get inside a structure, every second counts. The Inforcer rescue training aide provides valuable practice in breaching all kinds of doors and lock configurations. Finding doors that can be cut, pried, or otherwise abused can be tough for your local fire department, so the Inforcer’s replaceable locks, hinges, and padlock loops make multiple training runs a lot easier to perform.

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What do you get when you cross a cat’s paw with an air chisel? The NailOut. Powered by compressed air, the NailOut drives the claw underneath the nail and removes it up to ten times faster than an ordinary cat’s paw. To get the full effect you need to check out the video here.

The NailOut connects to your compressor with a standard 1/4″ inlet and draws up to 4 CFM to deliver 4,600 blows per minute. If you need to remove 200 nails in a hurry, this is the tool for you. Check out the NailOut on Amazon for $150.

NailOut [Official Site]
VIa Amazon [What's This?]

This wicked looking tool — originally designed to open and close crates — looks like it would be good for taking apart objects you really don’t care to put back together.

Part hatchet, part hammer, part pry bar, this Frankenstein’s monster of a tool even sports scars in the form of wood filler in the handle and casting marks in the steel — it has the look of a “pre-owned” tool. At 13-1/2″ long, this crudely built monstrosity weighs about two pounds.

For $10 — who would pay more? — you can add the Box Tool to your arsenal of destruction. Next time your neighbor asks to borrow a hammer, give him this tool and watch the look on his face.

Box Tool [Lee Valley]

Pure oxygen is awesome stuff — combine it with with a fuel source, and it can produce a brilliant flame capable of burning through nearly anything. The traditional fuel source for Oxy-Metal cutting has been compressed acetylene; but now Petrogen offers a cutting system that uses regular gasoline.

Their gasoline cutting torch outperforms its acetylene cousin in several ways, and especially in fuel cost savings. Two and a half gallons of regular pump gas can do the work of approximately 250 cubic feet of acetylene, offering greater portability as well as significant savings — even with increasing gas prices.

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These days it seems everyone has a nail gun, no matter how few nails they need to drive — even someone who’s never hefted a hammer can pick up a nailer/compressor package for the simplest of projects. But when it comes to getting nails out of lumber, we all seem to resort to the same simple tools: wrecking bars, cat’s paws, FUBARs, and brute force. Now the Nail Kicker gives you a way to reclaim lumber, without relying on just hand tools.

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Need a square hole in a brick wall? You can try to cut it with a circular saw, but what are you going to do about the corners — chip ‘em out? Why bother, when you can use the AS160 from Arbortech? The AS160 cuts so precisely, you can remove a single brick from a wall without damaging the surrounding bricks. If you find that hard to believe, watch their repetitive but informative video.

Moving in an orbital motion, two forward-facing blades provide a simultaneous hammering and cutting action, minimizing the danger of kickback. This arrangement also cuts cleaner, throwing no dust, so the work is more visible, and there’s less mess to clean up. Another advantage: The blades cut dry, so all you need is a standard vacuum to suck up the debris, and with an optional dust boot you can clean as you cut.

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How many improvements can be made to the common prybar? Well, the GripBar, I think, adds a major one: the knuckle guard. Along with all the features you expect from a prybar — a curved shape for extra leverage and a U-shaped channel for nail removal — you can flip the prybar over and pound nails with the built-in hammer head.

For me, though, the clincher is the padded handle/knuckle guard — because grazed or bruised knuckles, even with gloves, come with the territory of demolition. The 18″ GripBar weighs in at 2-1/2 lbs., and you can get it at the Duluth Trading Company for $20.

GripBar [Tool Innovations Inc.]
GripBar [Duluth Trading Company]
Street Pricing [Google Products]