A while back, I saw a neat tool on "This Old House" for pulling buried
nails out. It was made from Vise Grip pliers. The jaws were ground to
a point (needle nose style) so they would penetrate the wood around a
nail. There was a rod, maybe 12 inches or so, welded to the handle with
an impact weight on it. They opened the jaws to clear the buried nail
and drove it in with the impact weight. They were using it to salvage
some old molding for reuse. It seemed to work well with minimal damage
to the wood.

Ron