Abstract: An instrument for extracting splinters and the like, having a hollow elongated handle; a pair of resilient arms, the arms being mounted externally on the handle, having jaws disposed outwardly of a tip end of the handle, and extending along the handle toward its opposite end; a rod having a piercing end at the tip end of the handle and being slidably received within the cavity for movement between an operating position in which the piercing end extends outwardly of the jaws and a sheathed position in which this end is adjacent to the tip end; a spring urging the rod toward the sheathed position; a plunger extending within the cavity at such opposite end to engage the rod and having a button to press the rod into the operating position; a latch mounted on the plunger for latching the rod in this position; and a trigger operable by pressing one of the arms toward the handle to unlatch the rod from the handle for return by the spring to the sheathed position.