A tool for extracting well pipe casings resembles an enlarged pipe-thread
tap. The tool is designed to be suspended under and driven by the
traveling rotary table and hydraulic vertical drive system of a
conventional drilling rig. By this means, well pipe casings are withdrawn
from wells by engaging the tops of such well pipe casings, and unlike the
prior art, which grapples well pipe casings at their very bottom, and at
the end of a cable. Unlike withdrawing casing by a cable pull, wherein
cables stretch and unstuck casings might launch like projectiles, the
extractor tool manages to withdraw well pipe casing in a recoilless
manner, which is more controlled, and safer.