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Antiques! => Antique Questions Forum => Topic started by: mxyplqx on April 14, 2016, 03:48:16 PM
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We have 4 tools we can’t figure. A tool forum couldn't either. Can you? Here is the first.
It can be closed either way. The inside of the handle is roughed up for a good grip on something. The blade does not move as the handles rotate. Sorry about the art work - I couldn’t get the Irfanview Paint function to work my way today.
Looks to me like you might insert the prongs into a slot in a small gizmo then grip it with the handles. It evidently takes 2 sizes; 1/4 and 1/2 inch.
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Here's another pic. I couldn't get both into the same post.
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Post pictures of the other 3 tools.
One or more of the other 3 tools might give a "clue" of what they were used for.
And when you said "blade" .... did you mean a sharpened blade like a wood chisel's blade?
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I couldn`t see a blade either !! Handles look like some tools I have seen from old blacksmith collections but the use,, have no clue !! Maybe holding, bending, curling flat iron ??
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Hi-
The other tools are unrelated. 2 have been identified. Only clue is a stretch but there was a lot of early Ford Model T stuff also as well as old farm tools. I spect this is about 100 years old.
Here is what I called the ’blade’ for want of a better description or lack of imagination. The whole thing is only 6 inch long and is all steel. I can’t think a blacksmith would hold anything hot in this. That ‘blade’ makes it look like a specialized tool.
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My first thought was a primitive gaping tool....but couldn't find anything like it. I even looked to see if it was an unusual nut cracker (with the gripping insides) Looking.....
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These are for early Ford T`s !! See if any of this jogs your memory ?? It didn`t mine !! If its for a car I don`t think it was a T or an A !!
Never mind,, I forgot to paste the link before going to town !!
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I guess others think that this is a nut cracker...and it "resembles" the tool!
(https://img0.etsystatic.com/071/0/7686989/il_570xN.813363108_2gvu.jpg)
and another
(http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee140/2006kostadinov3/DSC07251.jpg?t=1256672811)
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And more nut crackers! (Also saw 2 places referred to as a Lobster cracker.) So far I have found over 10 and they are all located in the United Kingdom and most are referred to as from Victorian to early 1900's. This has been referred to as a "Reversible hinge" or "double jointed" nut cracker. Can be used either way you flip the handles and the end/hinge piece helps hold the larger or smaller nut! The protruding gaped & tall one is also used to help pry the shells apart!
(http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/NTEyWDUyMA==/z/5HIAAOSwxCxT9Hnl/$_1.JPG)
(http://www.michaelfinlay.com/MF_WEBSITE_TRIAL/___NUTCRACKERS/IMAG006.JPG)
A collection of nutcrackers of Michael Finlay that states "A pair of Victorian steel nutcrackers with double-jointed hinge, reversible to accommodate different sizes of nut and a wooden home-made pair of similar design"
http://www.michaelfinlay.com/MF_WEBSITE_TRIAL/___NUTCRACKERS.html (http://www.michaelfinlay.com/MF_WEBSITE_TRIAL/___NUTCRACKERS.html)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ANTIQUE-NUTCRACKERS-X-3-VICTORIAN-/182082046376?hash=item2a64ef89a8:g:KEMAAOSwEK9T1WR0 (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ANTIQUE-NUTCRACKERS-X-3-VICTORIAN-/182082046376?hash=item2a64ef89a8:g:KEMAAOSwEK9T1WR0)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Antique-Victorian-Nutcrackers-with-DIAMOND-MARK-For-1848-/141954339473?hash=item210d235291:g:n~kAAOSwjMJXCTtG (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Antique-Victorian-Nutcrackers-with-DIAMOND-MARK-For-1848-/141954339473?hash=item210d235291:g:n~kAAOSwjMJXCTtG)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ANTIQUE-CAST-IRON-GEORGIAN-NUTCRACKER-REVERSIBLE-HINGE-Very-Collectable-/322060400946?hash=item4afc4bb932:g:288AAOSwT5tWQPD- (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ANTIQUE-CAST-IRON-GEORGIAN-NUTCRACKER-REVERSIBLE-HINGE-Very-Collectable-/322060400946?hash=item4afc4bb932:g:288AAOSwT5tWQPD-)
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The central hinge has this description as well "Antique cast iron nutcracker tool / late Georgian to early Victorian period - reversible/hinged with animal head central plate c. mid C19th" Hmmmm.
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Well Duh !!! I thought the thing was about 10 inches long from the pic !! Makes much more sense at 6 inches !! I sure didn`t look for the obvious and the description given was a bit foggy !! Excellent KC !! Brownie point for you !!
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Thank you!!! I sure came to the right place. You all know your stuff.
Unbelievable. Ironically the first suggestion on the tool forum was nutcracker. I thot it was just a facetious remark and probly everybody else did too. Well what could you expect from a bunch of old shade tree mechanics?
The handles have a very nice curve and fit to them. It belongs to a friend who is about 88. His sister is 108 and for years she’d go to farm yard sales etc and just acquire stuff like this then toss it in the barn.
When we get together he brings some along so we can try to figure them out. When I give it back that’s where it will go - back into the pile. Hope it’s not super valuable.
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I think when you said tool,,we started looking in the direction of cars, wagons ect !! And the fact that it was in a barn !! If you had said a kitchen tool,, we might have been speedier !! :D
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So, you thought the first person who made that suggeston on the tool forum was a little "nuts"! 😜
Well, I know there are quite a bunch of us that would love to go foraging through that barn and help figure out the "what is its"! :)
Please don't be a stranger and help us to keep our brain cells active! List more!
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Ready for a road trip KC ?? Maybe we wouldn`t be shot for B&E !! I can see the two of us sitting in the barn with a pile of rusty junk and our computers !! Mmmm,, whats this one ?? :D
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And more nut crackers! (Also saw 2 places referred to as a Lobster cracker.) So far I have found over 10 and they are all located in the United Kingdom and most are referred to as from Victorian to early 1900's. This has been referred to as a "Reversible hinge" or "double jointed" nut cracker.
Well now, I have serious doubts that any of those "tools" were originally produced to be used as "nutcrackers".
Try "picturing" yourself holding a "nut" in one hand and trying to use that tool with your other hand.
Without a "spring assisted" opening of the "jaws" ...... you would need 3 hands to be cracking nuts.
And by the way, ...... just what were the different types/varities of "hard-shell" nuts that they were "cracking" ..... that they needed two (2) different jaw opening available on/with a single nutcracker?
And ps: my January 1908 Baltimore Bargain House wholesale catalogue lists "spring loaded nutcrackers" for $1.28/doz.
Historical trivia:
One of Quackenbush's most famous and most successful inventions came in 1878, when he created the first nutcracker and nutpick. In 1913, he patented the spring-jointed nutcracker, a nickel-plated, solid steel nutcracker with four picks. Nearly 200 million of these nutcrackers have been sold worldwide since then. http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/nutcracker.htm (http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/nutcracker.htm)
And a Quackenbush BB Gun ..... is a rare find.
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Better than that old pair of slip joint pliers we used to use !! On second thought,, those pliers worked pretty darn good !!
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Sounds great to me!!!
By-the-way Mart, storms are a comin' tomorrow! Hope the hail is kind to all of us!
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Cross your fingers KC !! Hail on my garden would not be a good thing !!
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Cogar I know that we have several different sizes of pecans here on our property. The best tasting pecans are small small ones (too small for the electric cracking machines). The paper shells are much larger and don't need a spring loaded cracker and are great for hand cracking. The Wichita and Western vary in size and thickness of shell - the further down the cracker toward the hand the better to crack. We actually have several different crackers for them. LOL In fact tooooooo many!
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Those little small pecans are native pecans and have twice as much flavor as the papershells !! But sure takes longer to get enough for a pie !!
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Yep they are the native pecans Mart. No doubt the squirrels planted all of those around us! :) Noone will understand until they crack those stubborn little shells open and taste the flavorful bites of nuttiness!!! Agree it takes a l-o-n-g time to get enough for a pie but soooooo worth it!
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Cogar I know that we have several different sizes of pecans here on our property.
KC, unless I’m mistaken, I really don’t think one could squeeze this “nutcracker” hard enough to be cracking very many of your pecans.
Note 2nd picture, …….. the handles will not close any closer than the width of that “blade”.
(http://www.antique-shop.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=18633.0;attach=65786;image)
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I bet that smaller end is for pecans and smaller nuts and the wider one for English walnuts !! He did say the handles can go all the way around didn`t he ?? That would prevent the handles from crushing the shell instead of just cracking it !! I hate to pick all those little pieces out !!
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I have cracked thousands of walnuts as we get 50 to 100 lbs of them a year for at least 30 years. That silly thing is not for cracking walnuts. Filberts maybe. Walnuts? No. Pecans? I doubt it. There are special hand pecan crackers which cut off each end then mash the center. 3-5 squeezes per nut. I did several hundred one year - never again.
Walnuts are best cracked from the ends not the sides. I crack about 12 per minute with a hammer and anvil. With much practice I get mostly halves maybe 90%.
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But you are using new equipment !! I always crack walnuts from the sides !! Then just separate the two halves and remove the nut usually intact !! But then thats the Texas way !!
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:-)
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https://books.google.com/books?id=ZhxRMPg4Y4gC&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=What+are+the+oldest+english+cast+iron+nutcrackers&source=bl&ots=C4bza5xo0C&sig=ssTEF2r7NbpmeZvGrl3v59uzXOg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi78fqc_5jMAhUE4D4KHadODmwQ6AEIOzAF#v=onepage&q=What%20are%20the%20oldest%20english%20cast%20iron%20nutcrackers&f=false
Here are more made similarly !! Just because its a nutcracker no one said how well it worked !! I bet there were many made that did not do a terrific job !! Like everything else they evolved over the years !!
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One of these days I am going to sell this one.
Big or small, ...... short or long, ...... makes no difference, it'll crack them all. ;D ;D
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LOL!! Thats cheating Cogar !! I don`t have one like that !! :D
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I haven't seen one like that! Could have used it for the black walnuts we used to get at my grandmother's house!
Aren't he ones that cut off the ends are referred to as shellers instead of crackers?
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Mmm,, for black walnuts a sledge hammer and a piece of railroad iron would work better !! : :)
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Mmm,, for black walnuts a sledge hammer and a piece of railroad iron would work better !! : :)
My above "pictured" nutcracker will "crack" those black walnuts ... just s fast as you can place a walnut in the lower jaw and crank the handle down. And it will never "crush" one unless you crank the handle 2 or 3 more times on the same nut.
Black walnuts hulls are tough to "crack" ..... but not half as tough as a Butternut (white walnut) hull.