Jack Hargreaves nutcracker

[Kadushu]

A few weeks ago my nutcracker broke then some days later I was watching Jack Hargreaves on Youtube and he showed this made from a single piece of hazel.





So I had a go at whittling my own.



The mk1 on the left works but the hinge is a bit loosey goosey. The mk2 broke so a TBS Badger is in its place. The mk3 on the right also works and resolved the loose hinge but the wood is a bit thin in that area so maybe it won't survive many nuts. Steam bending would be better for the hinge and cutting it on a bandsaw would be much easier but as a quick project in the woods these can be made with a knife and a handsaw. Give it a go ;-)

 

[Toddy]

I like that
That has to be one of those 'have a go at this' projects
Thank you

M

 

[Kadushu]

I wonder how many other wooden gadgets like this have been lost to time and how old this design could be. It's also nice to make something that is genuinely useful.

 

[Toddy]

I wonder how many other wooden gadgets like this have been lost to time and how old this design could be. It's also nice to make something that is genuinely useful.

We could make a thread of them ?
This Nutcracker, and there are the wee brushes, netting needles...what else ?

I think this kind of stuff is a lot more fun to practice than spoon carving, well, for me at least.
I have beautiful wooden spoons, other folks made them though, not me

 

[Kadushu]

We could make a thread of them ?
This Nutcracker, and there are the wee brushes, netting needles...what else ?

I think this kind of stuff is a lot more fun to practice than spoon carving, well, for me at least.
I have beautiful wooden spoons, other folks made them though, not me

That would be a cool thread! I don't mind spoon carving but they are a bit of a cliché in bushcraft circles, along with pot hangers and primitive traps which you can't legally use anyway.

 

[Seagull]

Does anyone still use the hand made hazel clothes pegs, the ones with a blood-seeking strip taken from the side of a bean tin.
Doesn't seem all that long ago that these were touted door to door .
'suppose they went the same way as the tinker/grinder, with his bicycle-driven Tomek wheel.
regards all
Ceeg

 

[Kadushu]

Does anyone still use the hand made hazel clothes pegs, the ones with a blood-seeking strip taken from the side of a bean tin.
Doesn't seem all that long ago that these were touted door to door .
'suppose they went the same way as the tinker/grinder, with his bicycle-driven Tomek wheel.
regards all
Ceeg

Good call. I've made and used hazel clothes pegs but with string instead of metal.

 

[Kepis]

Does anyone still use the hand made hazel clothes pegs, the ones with a blood-seeking strip taken from the side of a bean tin.
Doesn't seem all that long ago that these were touted door to door .
'suppose they went the same way as the tinker/grinder, with his bicycle-driven Tomek wheel.
regards all
Ceeg

I make them and use them, my claim to fame though was supplying a load to be used on Game of Thrones.

 

[Seagull]

Brilliant! heartwarming and brilliant,
Ceeg

 

[Toddy]

My Granny had hand carved clothes pegs, but they didn't have metal bands. Those rusted and there's no way they were getting near the clothes or linens.

They were cut flat and kind of square-ish, then two very shallow angles up to a mid point where a hole was drilled. Kind of a wooden spring.

Instructables has one where it's just two sticks and some bike inner tube.
I'll find a link....

DIY CLOTHES PEGS (recycled, Easy, Fast)

DIY CLOTHES PEGS (recycled, Easy, Fast): This is how I made my clothespins, with used chopstick. But if you re out camping you can use pieces of STICKS. (IT WILL BE REALLY USEFUL IN WINDY DAY!!!!!). or you can use garden cane. You can adjust the rubber ring ones you have hang your clothes.…

www.instructables.com

M

 

[Mesquite]

We could make a thread of them ?
This Nutcracker, and there are the wee brushes, netting needles...what else ?

Off the top of my head you've also got tongs made from a single branch, thinned down in the middle and steam bent, snow goggles, fishing hooks, steam bent bow saws, pack down bowsaws.

 

[SaraR]

The porridge stirers made from the top of a small spruce/pine tree make for excellent rustic hangers for smaller items.

 

[saxonaxe]

I used to help my Dad making pegs. He would cut a tin with tin snips, cutting in a long spiral which resulted in curly tin. My older Sister and me would take the spiral cut metal to Mum's Mangle which was bolted onto the Cratch at the rear of the Wagon. The Mangle had wooden rollers, I would turn the handle and my sister would feed the tin through and the spiral became a long flat strip. Making it flat made it easier to work with and cut for binding the pegs.
It's how I learned to count. My job was to sort the pegs into bundles of a dozen, but Dad always made it thirteen to allow for any that split, which would annoy the buyer.
Two hands, two fingers and a thumb was how Mum taught me to count the pegs. A peg for each finger, an extra two fingers and one for my thumb, and I knew there was the correct number of pegs to be bundled up.
It was only after I was 10 years old and made to go to school that I found out that what Dad called a dozen was twelve and not thirteen.

 

[Kadushu]

Off the top of my head you've also got tongs made from a single branch, thinned down in the middle and steam bent, snow goggles, fishing hooks, steam bent bow saws, pack down bowsaws.

There's a bowsaw that appears in Jack Hargreaves' shed which I've been meaning to replicate also.

 

[Mesquite]

There's a bowsaw that appears in Jack Hargreaves' shed which I've been meaning to replicate also.

Don't suppose you've got a screenshot of it?

 

[Kadushu]

Don't suppose you've got a screenshot of it?

Not right now but I'll get one later

 

[Kadushu]

Don't suppose you've got a screenshot of it?

 

[Mesquite]

That would definitely be interesting to re-create

 

[Toddy]

Actually, thinking on it, there's a Chinese grandpa, a Chinese joiner, who uses the kind of tools that we see in medieval illustrations. I find them fascinating to watch in use. Handtools of the type that one could make oneself.

I'll see if I can find a link.

 

[Toddy]

Saws, drills, clamps, etc.,

https://www.youtube.com/@GrandpaAmu