I just came back from the kitchen where I was preparing a dozen hard boiled eggs for a recipe.  Part of this preparation is removing each of the egg's shell. The best tip I've heard yet is to shock the eggs in ice water directly after pulling them off a boil, cracking each end and pealing across the hemisphere. This works about 50/50 for me. That's to say half of my eggs are unpresentable. I've been told also only to hard/soft-boil old eggs, which for obvious reasons isn't always practical. 

What's the best way to shell a hard/soft-boil chicken egg?