get blood out of a stone vs pull teeth

get blood out of a stone

verb
  • To do something difficult, frustrating, or pointless. 

pull teeth

verb
  • To do something that is especially difficult or effortful. 

  • To remove teeth, usually because they are diseased or damaged. 

How often have the words get blood out of a stone and pull teeth occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )