Tool ID: Interesting old pick? Any ideas?

[Bill C]

Found this intersting little tool in a 1950’s tool box I just aquired. It is 4-5in long with a unique tip shape. Also of interest is the detailed “knurling” and finnial detail on the end. Does anybody have any insight regarding the origial use of this tool or its manufacturer?

Here are the pics:

 

[PelicanPines]

Nut pick... I had 4 with my nut cracker... from the 50's... for walnuts and pecans.

 

[tool_scrounge]

It is a nut pick for walnuts , etc.

 

[Stuart in MN]

Nut pick... I had 4 with my nut cracker... from the 50's... for walnuts and pecans.

They were often part of a set with a nut bowl, there would be a part in the center of the bowl with holes in it where you would stick the nutcracker and the picks.


I never figured them out, though...the nutcracker was useful, but to me it was simpler just to pick out any fragments of the nutshell with your fingers rather than using a pick.

 

[rlitman]

They were often part of a set with a nut...
I never figured them out, though...the nutcracker was useful, but...

You're confusing two things. The "nutcracker" sets that come with picks are actually made for shellfish. The pick is to remove meat from crab legs.

 

[MrSurly]

Here's the whole set on ebay.

The cracker is shared, but everyone at the table gets their own pick.

 

[PelicanPines]

They were often part of a set with a nut bowl, there would be a part in the center of the bowl with holes in it where you would stick the nutcracker and the picks.


I never figured them out, though...the nutcracker was useful, but to me it was simpler just to pick out any fragments of the nutshell with your fingers rather than using a pick.

I was like a junior nut surgeon … I liked using the pick... our bowl was in the shape of a squirrel... My uncle taught me how to crack two walnuts together without using the nut cracker... ways to impress friends at parties...

You're confusing two things. The "nutcracker" sets that come with picks are actually made for shellfish. The pick is to remove meat from crab legs.

Probably right but I used the picks on nuts... we didn't eat shellfish when I was a youngin.

 

[3baygarage]

My aunt and uncle had that set on the table when I was a kid. The wood bowl with cracker above where you crank the handle and it worked like a wine press or similar wood threaded shaft. Had those pics and the spring loaded crackers with it. I always had to play with that stuff, thy kept it full of mixed nuts.

Just like this:

 

[Bill C]

Wow. It’s obvious now. My wife even has some in our kitchen. We use them more often for shellfish. I guess I wasn’t thinking outside the “tool box” when trying to ID it.

 

[Boilerhouse]

Did not know they were meant for shellfish, as I have seen these sets beside every nut bowl of every house I have ever been in. I used the picks on brazil nuts, but my father, being older and a lot wiser, put these nuts in the freezer first. No pick necessary.

 

[PelicanPines]

You have to admit... it's fitting that us tool guys have "Picks" for our nuts... Some prefer using their nut picks on shell fish... making future nut picking fishy... I need to stop now...

 

[MR.X]

You're confusing two things. The "nutcracker" sets that come with picks are actually made for shellfish. The pick is to remove meat from crab legs.

Yeah, except in the separate Henry M. Quackenbush (HMQ) patents, one (actually he had more than one) is called "Nutcracker' and the other is titled "manufacture of nut picks". Doesn't mean people don't use them for shellfish of course but it does mean......

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Thanks for the Quackenbush reference, X. Interesting guy.

Those nutcracker sets are traditional classics. I am having 60's childhood holidays flashbacks! I suppose one could eat a pecan or walnut out of the shell without a pick, but not without making a mess. As for crabs and lobsters, we always used those skinny forks, and I still do. Except for softshells, of course, which go right from the live bucket to the grill to the bun!

 

[Sevenhills1952]

Ace hardware has this set.
I wouldn't want to use that mechanics one, probably used to clean his toenails.

Sent from my SM-S320VL using Tapatalk

 

[Stuart in MN]

You're confusing two things. The "nutcracker" sets that come with picks are actually made for shellfish. The pick is to remove meat from crab legs.

My parents had one, it was a turned walnut bowl. Not the sort of thing you would put crab legs in, it was for nuts.