:I've had to remove
: a few staples while building, and I haven't yet found the silver bullet of
: staple removal. If anyone has pointers, I'm ready to hear 'em.

I found a silver bullet! I use cheap cutter used for electronics. They are not exactly like diaginoal cutters as the back side of the cutter is flat for flush cutting. I find that with these If there is any staple above the wood you can get them out without maring the wood. In fact I have accidently sanded off staples on the shear strip and have been able to still remove the legs without maring the wood! The only trick to using them is to grab the staple as flush as posibble (near one leg works best), and not to use enough pressure to cut through the staple. If you cut the staple just pull out the legs induvidualy.

hope this helps.

sage